Police arrest six suspected of helping 'shoe bomber'

Six people arrested in the French capital yesterday are suspected of having helped Richard Reid, the British alleged "shoe-bomber" charged in the US with attempting to blow up a Paris-Miami flight last Christmas.

It was not immediately clear if there were connections between these arrests and other captures of alleged al Qaeda activists in the Paris area in recent days, including Slimane Khalfaoui and another so-called "big fish", Redouane Daoud, who escaped from prison in the Netherlands in June.

French investigators said the arrests - although fitting into the same broad picture of alleged Islamist terror activity in Europe - resulted from separate investigations.

French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy was jubilant about the arrests. He described them as a "tres belle affaire" (very fine thing) and paid tribute to the "quality of the French security services".

The arrest of Mr Khalfaoui, a 27-year-old Franco-Algerian, in a raid by 100 elite police officers on his sister's home in Seine-Saint Denis on Monday is regarded as especially significant by French investigators. Mr Khalfaoui is said to be a close ally of an Algerian arrested in London and accused of planning terrorist acts there.

Internal EU documents and a French intelligence report leaked earlier this month have identified Britain as the most likely target for an al Qaeda attack in Europe. French investigators believe Mr Khalfaoui may have been a link-man, or a possible future "operative" in such an attack.

The raids in Paris yesterday, mostly on the Pakistani community, including two small mosques, appeared to be part of a separate investigation into the five days spent in Paris by Richard Reid before he boarded a flight for Miami on 22 December.

Three people were already arrested last June by the French anti-terrorist squad in connection with Mr Reid's stay in Paris. Investigators said that yesterday's arrests "wrapped up" the French end of the Reid inquiry.

- INDEPENDENT