France Thwarts Bomb Plot at Bank of America in Paris

French authorities heightened security around U.S. financial institutions in Paris this week after thwarting a bomb plot at Bank of America's headquarters and receiving warnings of further threats from a pro-Iranian group.

On the night of March 28-29, 2026, police in Paris's 8th arrondissement arrested four suspects—an adult and three minors—outside the Bank of America office after one attempted to ignite an explosive device. The device, described by prosecutors as a five-liter petrol can attached to a large pyrotechnic charge with a 650-gram explosive cylinder, was the most powerful of its kind identified in France and could have produced a fireball several meters wide. The minors, aged 16 and 17 from the Montreuil suburbs and profiled as having ties to organized crime, served as lookouts and filmed the attempt. Investigators say the adult recruited them, paying each between 500 and 1,000 euros to plant the device. All four denied terrorist intent and were placed under formal investigation for charges including manufacturing and handling explosives and attempting property destruction as part of a terrorist enterprise.

France's National Antiterrorism Prosecutors Office linked...