Two men of Syrian origin suspected of being linked to terrorism were arrested in Geneva on Friday after traces of explosives were found, a government official has said. Prosecutor Olivier Jornot said the two men had recently arrived in Geneva when they were arrested and did not speak French. The Swiss attorney general’s office said earlier that the two men being held were arrested on suspicion of making, hiding and transporting explosives, as well as for violating federal law, which bans membership of groups affiliated to Islamic State or al-Qaida. More arrests were expected in the coming days amid heightened security in the Swiss city, Jornot said. Geneva security officials had recently raised the alert level in the city in connection with a hunt for four suspects linked to the Paris attacks on 13 November, but Jornot said there was no indication that these suspects were in Switzerland. The two being held were arrested on Friday on the road outside Cologny, a municipality in the canton of Geneva, SwissInfo reported. Earlier this week, Swiss media circulated police images of four men alleged to be members of Isis, whom authorities were hunting, reportedly after a US intelligence tip-off. The department would not comment on whether the four being hunted were believed to have had any direct role in the Paris attacks, where 130 people were killed by gunmen and suicide bombers. Swiss justice minister, Simonetta Sommaruga, said on Friday that authorities had no reason to believe terrorists were planning a specific attack in Switzerland. Pierre Maudet, Geneva’s head of the security and economic affairs department, told the local Le Temps newspaper that security in the city would be heightened but played down connections to the recent situation in Brussels. “We can’t say that an attack has been foiled today,” Maudet said, but added that precautions continue “while the more precise threat still exists”.
Two men of Syrian origin were arrested on Friday after a tip-off from US-intelligence-led Swiss anti-terrorist units. The local authorities have played down the notion of a direct link to the Paris attacks, but have said that the two were arrested on suspicion of making, hiding and transporting explosives and toxic gas, as well as violating federal laws that prohibit the membership of groups affiliated with either ISIS or Al Qaeda. Two other men are still being sought.