French national arrested in Paris region over 'advanced terror plot'

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said police had arrested a suspect in the Paris area on Thursday who was in "the advanced stages" of a plot to attack France.

While Cazeneuve said the raid in the Argenteuil neighbourhood northwest of Paris had led to a "major arrest," he told reporters there was "no tangible evidence linking the plot to either the attacks in Paris or Brussels".

The arrested man "is suspected of being involved in the plan at a high level," Cazeneuve said. "He belongs to a terrorist network that sought to strike our country."

The minister said that the suspect was a French citizen and had been under police surveillance for several weeks. Cazeneuve also said the arrest was the result of "close and constant cooperation between European services".

Police operations were continuing late on Thursday, with officers searching an apartment building in Argenteuil after having evacuated its residents.

Bomb disposal experts were at the scene to allow police officers "to proceed with searching the apartment, the parking and the communal areas in optimal conditions," Cazeneuve added.

A security cordon has been set up around the building.

Police have launched a string of raids across Belgium and France in response to Islamic State-claimed attacks that rocked Brussels on Tuesday, killing at least 34 people and wounding 200 others.

The assailants in the Brussels attacks - two of whom are still on the run - are known to have had links to those involved in the 13 November Paris attacks that left 130 dead.