Six people linked to the far right were arrested in France on Tuesday as part of an investigation into a suspected plot to attack President Emmanuel Macron, officials told CNN Tuesday.
France's intelligence agency, the DGSI, said the six people were arrested in three separate regions: Isère, southeast of Lyon; Moselle, on the border with Germany and Luxembourg; and Ille-et-Vilaine, in the northwest near the city of Rennes.
The suspects include five men and a woman between the ages of 22 and 62, a judicial source close to the probe told CNN. All have connections to the far right, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
"The investigation is looking into an imprecise and loosely formed plan for violent action against the President of the Republic," said the judicial source, who declined to be named discussing an ongoing investigation.
The arrests come after Macron warned in an interview with Le Courrier Picard on Sunday of the rising threat of the far-right movement, adding that complacency in the early 1900s paved the way for Hitler's rise in Germany and Mussolini in Italy.
According to Reuters, France's far-right euroskeptic National Rally -- formerly known as the National Front -- is leading the polls against Macron ahead of the European Parliament election in May. The party is led by Marine Le Pen.
Source: cnn