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By Bloomberg

French authorities thwarted a terrorist attack on churches in Paris and arrested the suspect, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

Authorities arrested a 24-year-old computer-systems student in the 13th district of Paris and found “weapons, ammunition, bullet-proof jackets and IT hardware showing without doubt that the suspect was planning an imminent attack,” Cazeneuve said. The attack, on one or perhaps two churches, had been planned for last Sunday, April 19. The suspect was placed in custody.

France has been on high terror alert since the January attacks in and near Paris that left 17 people dead. The capital has been on maximum alert, with about 10,000 army and police troops patrolling the city with rifles, protecting landmarks, transport hubs and some religious venues like Jewish schools.

“The terrorism threat is unprecedented,” Cazeneuve said in Paris on Wednesday.

The police already had the man under surveillance in 2014, and he had plans to travel to Syria, Cazeneuve said.

The student is suspected of the murder of a 32-year-old woman before the planned attack. The mother-of-one was found dead in a car in Villejuif, near Paris. The reason for her killing is unknown, Cazeneuve said.