Suspected detonator parts found in Paris flat

French police have found suspected detonator parts in a flat used by four alleged Islamic militants who it is feared were planning an attack.

The components were found in a washing machine in the apartment, an official close to the investigation said today.

Results of tests on a mysterious liquid also found in the flat have not been released, but the official said it did not appear to be a chemical or biological agent.

Agents from the DST counter-intelligence service found the suspected detonator parts yesterday at the apartment in the tough Paris suburb of La Courneuve.

The four suspected militants – three Algerians and a Moroccan – were arrested on Monday at the address.

That raid also turned up a protective military suit against biological, chemical and nuclear attacks, false identity papers, $5,000 in cash (€4,800), a computer and extremist Islamic documents, officials said.

Tests on a second substance found at the flat showed it to be iron perchlorate, they said, adding that it can be used to make explosives.

The official close to the investigation said the other liquid substance appeared to be similar, “that is to say some sort of potential explosive rather than anything else.”

“We are more in the explosives field than in the chemical or biological,” he said.

The components found in the washing machine, meanwhile, “can be used as detonators,” he said.

Agents also found two empty gas bottles, the official said. Such bottles packed with explosives have been used previously in attacks in France.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday that the suspects were thought to have spent time in training camps in Afghanistan and Chechnya and had been in contact with Rabah Kadre, who was arrested with two other suspects last month in Britain on terrorism-related charges.

Kadre, 35, is accused of possessing materials for the “preparation, instigation or commission” of terrorism.

According to French news reports, he has links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network and had been to terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

Sarkozy indicated the suspects were planning an attack, saying that “with these four individuals, it was better to arrest them before rather than after.” He did not elaborate.

France’s top anti-terrorist judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, ordered the arrests. Bruguiere has recently stepped up arrests amid mounting concerns in Europe that a terror attack may be imminent.