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PARIS (Reuters) - Two Frenchmen were arrested in the southern port city of Marseille on Tuesday morning for planning an “imminent and violent attack” ahead of the first round of the presidential election, France’s interior minister said.

“These two radicalized men, born in 1987 and 1993, of French nationality, intended to commit in the very short-term - by that I mean in the coming days - an attack on French soil,” minister Matthias Fekl told a news conference.

Fekl said police were carrying out searches and that security surrounding the elections and the candidates had been strengthened.