Paris airport worker arrested over arms find

French police said yesterday they had arrested a baggage handler at Paris's main international airport who had guns and explosives hidden in his car, stoking fears that terror attacks are being plotted in France.

The employee of Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, identified as 27-year-old Abderazak Besseghir, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, was arrested on Saturday for possession of arms and explosives and was still in custody yesterday evening.

His father, two brothers and a friend are also being held by anti-terrorist police who said they were widening their inquiry to other people in Besseghir's circle and at the airport to try and establish whether or not a hijack attempt was being planned.

Charles de Gaulle airport, which handles around 100,000 passengers a day, is where Richard Reid, a self-styled British disciple of Osama bin Laden, managed to board a Miami-bound plane a year ago with explosives hidden in the sole of his shoe.

Police said they were tipped off by a passenger who thought there was something suspicious about the baggage handler's car.

They found an automatic pistol, a machine pistol, five cakes of plastic explosive, two detonators and a safety fuse in the boot of the car, which was parked in an airport car park.