A 23-year-old French soldier was arrested at his air force base near the city of Lyon for planning an attack on a local mosque, the French interior ministry said on Sunday.
The soldier held views “close to those of the radical extreme right” and had already attacked a mosque in the Bordeaux region last year without causing much damage, the ministry said, without giving further details.
Security services are grappling with an increase in far-right militant activity in France, home to Europe’s largest Muslim minority. The government closed down half a dozen far-right militant groups in July after the death of a left-wing student in a brawl between fringe groups.