French authorities have arrested a 15-year-old boy who was planning to carry out a “violent act” targeting the Jewish or LGBTQ communities, anti-terror prosecutors told AFP on Friday.
The teenager, apprehended last week in the southeastern Rhone region, is charged with “participation in a terrorist criminal conspiracy with a view to preparing one or more crimes against persons,” according to France’s national counterterrorism prosecutor’s office (PNAT).
He “admitted to wanting to die as a martyr and to having planned to carry out a violent act targeting the Jewish or LGBT community”, prosecutors added.
No further details regarding the teenager’s identity or the nature of the potential attack were immediately available.
In late 2025, France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor Olivier Christen noted a “four- or five-year” trend of younger defendants linked with “terrorist” offences, observing that “most are under 20” and there are “many minors these days.”
The head of the PNAT added that the suspects are primarily boys, many of whom are isolated and often “failing at school or relatively detached from it”.
