A Norwegian neo-Nazi metal rocker and convicted killer was arrested in France on Tuesday over fears that he might have been preparing a "major terrorist act", the interior ministry said.

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Kristian Vikernes, who is reportedly a sympathiser of Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik, was arrested by intelligence officers at dawn at his home in the central city of Salon-la-Tour, with his 25-year-old French wife Marie Cachet.

According to the ministry, Vikernes, who is 40 and goes by the stage name "Varg" is "close to the neo-Nazi movement" and could have been preparing a "major terrorist act."

He was once sentenced to 21 years in prison in Norway for stabbing to death one of his friends and had been under surveillance for several years. He has three children.

Anti-terrorism authorities in Paris began a serious investigation when at the beginning of the month his wife purchased weapons, although legally, as she has a permit.

Vikernes reportedly sympathised with Breivik, who is being held in isolation in a high security prison near Oslo for killing 77 people in a double attack in 2011.



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