AFP, Paris

French police have arrested two more people over an apparent bid to set off a homemade device outside the Paris headquarters of Bank of America, prosecutors said yesterday.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said Saturday that the war in the Middle East might have motivated the foiled attack.

Police detained the first suspect, a minor, in the early hours of Saturday just after he placed a device containing five litres of a liquid believed to be fuel and an ignition system outside the bank, a source close to the investigation said.

The suspect was accompanied by a second person, who appeared to be taking photos and videos with a mobile phone but who fled when police arrived. Two further arrests were made on Saturday night. According to a police source, the first suspect said he had been recruited through the Snapchat app to carry out a bombing in exchange for 600 euros ($692).