“‘Explosives at the foot of the Eiffel Tower’: young Belgians allegedly tried to plan an attack in Paris,” by Benjamin Samyn and Nicolas Foulon, RTL Info, March 17, 2023:

Three minors and one adult were arrested around ten days ago. They planned to attack a Brussels performance hall… But not only that. We discovered that they were also planning to attack the Eiffel Tower with explosives. Currently, several people are still wanted.

They do not know each other in reality, but talk for long hours about the Islamic State on the Signal application.

Among the members of the group, some look for weapons on the dark web, others settle for knives. A discussion takes place on Friday March 1st. They wish to act the following Monday, as a source close to the case tells us: 

“The police report is communicated and taken into account on Saturday morning, given the concrete elements relating to the imminence of an act. There is talk of striking Monday evening in Brussels. The operation is decided and implemented during the day and evening of Saturday. The DSU (Directorate of Special Units) sets up during the night from Saturday to Sunday.”

During the interrogations, the anti-terrorism agents asked the suspects if there were other targets than the Le Botanique performance hall… And indeed, one of the projects was even more daring: take to the Eiffel Tower.

“Some were talking about meeting in Paris. They were talking about putting explosives at the foot of the Eiffel Tower so that it would fall. There was one who always talked about a suicide attack with ram trucks. It was the Frenchman who always talked about this type of attack,” says a source.

Michel Degrève is a lawyer. According to him, this type of long-distance relationships between radicalized young people who do not know each other is a classic pattern: “We observe among several young people who are in this movement profiles who are out of school, marginalized and who find a form of belonging in groups and radical movements which allow them to emancipate themselves on a social level.

One of the minors involved was arrested in Charleroi. At 17, he came from a family practicing the Catholic religion. The radicalized young man, who defines himself as a Salafist, has been attending a mosque for a year and a half, but he considers it too lax. A relative confides:

“In barely a year, his attitude changed: beard, long hair, prayer clothes. He became cold, distant, closed, moralizing. To those who feared religious radicalization, he brushed aside their fears and responded tirelessly that he had simply found faith…”