France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Wednesday that police had arrested 232 people and shut down three mosques under emergency laws passed in the wake of last month's Paris terrorist attacks.
Cazeneuve told reporters it was the first time mosques are being closed in France "on grounds of radicalization."
One of the mosques, 35 kilometres east of Paris in Lagny-sur-Marne, was raided early on Wednesday, with police seizing a 9-mm revolver, a computer hard disc and jihadist propaganda. Cazeneuve said the mosque also had a non-authorized Koranic school.
One person was placed in custody following the raids, with 22 others banned from leaving France. Nine others were put under house arrest< AP reported.
Two other mosques, in Lyon and Gennevilliers in the Paris region, were shut down last week.
Cazeneuve said police have seized 334 weapons since the Paris attacks and 2,235 raids were carried out across the country. Of the weapons seized, 24 were military-grade.
Cazeneuve rejected criticism of the state of emergency and the wideranging powers the police have saying: "It is terrorism, not the state of emergency, which threatens freedoms".
