French police carried out nearly 170 searches and arrested 23 people in raids overnight in the wake of the attacks on Paris and more than 100 people have been placed under house arrest, the interior minister said.
A total of 31 weapons were seized, Bernard Cazeneuve added, with sources telling AFP they included a rocket launcher and a Kalashnikov rifle found near the southeast city of Lyon.
Police sources in Paris said “several dozen” pre-dawn raids were carried out in French cities today, including in Bobigny, an eastern suburb of the capital.
Thirteen raids were carried out around the southeastern French city of Lyon, a local police source said.
They led to five arrests and the seizure of “an arsenal of weapons,” including a rocket launcher, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, bulletproof vests, handguns and combat gear, the source said.
Police also carried out raids in Toulouse in southwestern France, where at least three people were arrested, according to the local prosecutor’s office.
In the Alpine city of Grenoble, according to the local newspaper Le Dauphine Libere, at least half a dozen people were arrested and guns and money were seized.
Police have additional powers under a state of emergency declared after the coordinated attacks in Paris on Friday that left 129 people dead and more than 350 injured.