Earlier, the newspaper Le Matin said a Belgian-registered auto that drove through a police check prompted police to examine a photograph of four suspected Islamist militants provided by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
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Authorities have raised the alert level to a “precise threat” from a “vague threat” as of Thursday afternoon and were tipped off about the suspects by the Central Intelligence Agency on Wednesday, according to a Swiss official who spoke to the Associate Press on the condition of anonymity.
“The Swiss government received information from a foreign authority regarding a potential IS cell in the Geneva area”, Ms Sommaruga told a news conference. The Geneva police said on Thursday they are working with their counterparts in France and the neighboring canton of Vaud. The link between a Paris attacker and the recruiter Fares generated security concerns about a Swiss associate of Fares suspected of traveling to Syria and joining with ISIS.
Police first got word about the suspects on Wednesday and were continuing to search for them on Thursday.
“The main goal here is to prevent a terrorist event”, the attorney general’s office said in the statement.
Tess Messmer, a YVR spokeswoman, said that while airport staff were aware of the media reports, federal authorities had not directed any changes to airport security. Despite this, Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said they are aware of “no specific or credible threat to Chicago at this time”, adding that the “FBI remains vigilant and will continue to work closely with other law enforcement partners to keep the community safe”.
The U.N. “has increased security measures at the Palais des Nations and other premises during the past weeks and more visibly today”, Michele Zaccheo, a U.N. spokesman in Geneva said by email. Authorities have not said what role he may have played in the attacks. Authorities located the owner of one bag found abandoned near a security checkpoint, and another bag was destroyed by bomb squads.
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At least seven of the weapons used or discovered after the November 13 attacks that killed 130 people have been identified as produced by the Serbian factory, majority manufactured before Yugoslavia broke up in a civil war in the 1990s.
