French say imminent "terror attack" thwarted

Two Frenchmen arrested in Marseille on Tuesday planned to carry out an "imminent and violent attack" ahead of the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, France's interior minister said.

PARIS (AP) Security concerns shook France's presidential campaign Tuesday as authorities announced arrests in a thwarted attack on the eve of the vote, and candidates urged tougher counterterrorism efforts for a country already under a state of emergency.

"These two radicalised men, born in 1987 and 1993, of French nationality, intended to commit in the very short-term - by that I mean in the coming days - an attack on French soil", minister Matthias Fekl told a news conference.

France's internal intelligence agency, which had been looking for the two suspects for more than a week, had warned main candidates in the election that there was a threat to their security, campaign officials said.

As a result, the conservative's protective device was reinforced since Friday, even with the presence of police snipers and RAID, or special police personnel. "A definite attack had been headed off", he said.

A total of 50,000 policemen and gendarmes will be mobilised during the two rounds of presidential elections on April 23 and May 7.

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The presidential election is being watched as a bellwether for global populist sentiment, in large part because of Le Pen's nationalist, anti-immigration positions.

"We can not fight the terrorism that weighs on our country without controlling our borders", Le Pen said.

Police, who had been hunting the pair since the end of last week, seized them a few minutes apart in the southeastern port city, the police source said.

Macron struck a tough but conciliatory tone.

But he added that "terrorism.is a challenge that calls upon us more than anything else to come together, because the terrorists wish nothing more than our division".

National security figures high on the agenda in the ballot after attacks by militant Islamists across France which have killed more than 230 people in the past two years.