Spain attack suspects did not come to France just for shopping: prosecutor
PARIS (Reuters) - A French prosecutor said on Wednesday that at least two members of an Islamist militant cell which killed 15 people in Spain last week had been in Paris prior to the attacks to do more than just shop.
Investigators are looking into whether the suspects behind the Barcelona and Cambrils attacks had links to France or Belgium and are examining their movements over recent weeks as they look for connections to possible cells elsewhere in Europe.
The car used in the attack in the seaside resort of Cambrils, south of Barcelona, was caught on camera speeding in the Paris region days earlier.
Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins confirmed to reporters that two or three of the suspects had been in Paris on Aug 11-12 and stayed in a hotel in southern Paris. French media has reported that at one point during the trip one of the militants bought a camera.
"Nobody can believe at this moment that this trip was carried out to buy a camera," Molins told a news conference, referring to local media reports.
"We have to find out what they had come to do in France."
Molins declined to give further details, but said the investigation in France was focusing on who the suspects had met, where they had been and what they had bought.
(Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry; writing by John Irish; editing by Richard Lough)
