French spies stop woman's suicide bomb plot to attack 'busy' Paris

Intelligence services uncovered and thwarted the threat which was due to have taken place in a "busy part of Paris" on Thursday, France's RTL radio said.

The alert came as French domestic intelligence chief Bernard Squarcini warned at the weekend that France's burqa ban had "seriously increased" the threat of a major terrorist attack in France.

Mr Squarcini said "all the red lights were flashing" over the risk that Islamic extremists would bomb French cities.

Mr Squarcini warned: "France's role in Afghanistan, its foreign policy and the debate over the law banning the burqa have all increased the risk."

The alert over the female suicide bomber was revealed to RTL radio yesterday.

The station said: "The intelligence service learned last Wednesday night that a female suicide bomber was plotting to commit a terrorist act in a busy part of Paris on Thursday.

"The intelligence came from agents in north Africa and was immidiately transmitted to the offices of the president and rime minister.

"From 6am on Thursday the terror alert status was raised and mobile anti-terrorist units began searching for the suspect."

The scare came a week after a bomb alert at the Eiffel Tower triggered by an anonymous phone call.

Around 2,000 people were evacuated from the tower and immediate area while police bomb squad units carried out a search. No device was found.

France voted through a new law banning the burqa last week, leading to threats of revenge from radical Islamic groups.

Al-Qaeda terrorists vowed revenge on France last year if it ever outlawed the full Islamic face veil from its streets.

Leaders of al-Qaeda's North African network wrote on an Islamic extremist website: "We will seek dreadful revenge on France by all means at our disposal, for the honour of our daughters and sisters."

Meanwhile French interior minister Brice Hortefeux said security had been stepped up around Jewish institutions in Paris following the arrest of a terrorist who planned to bomb an Israel Defence Force fundraising event in Paris.

The thwarted terror attack was the latest in a "worrying spiral" of threats to France's Jewish community, Mr Hortefeux said. The arrests also came just two weeks after "threatening and insulting" anonymous letters were posted through the doors of two Jewish community centres in Paris.

Mr Hortefeux said there had been 47 physical attacks against Jewish institutions in France this year, and another 190 threats.

He added: "We have stepped up security around schools. creched and synagogues.Joel Mergui, head of France's Jewish association, the Consistoire, said: "We would ask the authorities to ensure continued protection of our community.

"We are also seeking a full police investigation to find the authors of threatening letters sent last month."