French authorities have begun closing mosques they say harbored radical clerics who inspired the Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced on Wednesday morning that officials have shut down three mosques that showed a "pattern of radicalization" since implementing the state of emergency enacted after 130 people were killed in the French capital.
The raids that were carried out targeted "hate preachers" and "self-proclaimed imams," Cazeneuve said in a statement, adding that the closures were a first for the French government.
During a Wednesday morning raid east of Paris in the suburb Lagny-sur-Marne, police found a 9mm pistol and a hard drive that was allegedly "hidden behind a wall of pro-jihad propaganda," the French media outlet iTELE reported.
An additional 22 people were added to a do-not-travel list and nine were put under house arrest.
#perquisition et fermeture de la mosquée #LagnySurMarne Jean-Paul Michel ,maire de la commune s'exprime sur @itele pic.twitter.com/W74b7Xa20k— Baptiste Mathon (@BaptisteMathon) December 2, 2015
Worshippers at the mosque were reportedly kept waiting outside for six hours while police searched the grounds. Its founding imam, Mohamed Hammoumi, was a known radical who left for Egypt in 2014 with his wife and kids. He had allegedly inspired many youths in the area to go fight in Syria, iTELE reported. A dozen of them joined ISIS or the al-Nusra Front. At least three were connected to a October 2012 grenade attack on a kosher grocery store.
The other two mosques, which were closed last week, are located in the towns of Lyon and in Gennevilliers (Hauts-de-Seine).