Kim Hjelmgaard

USA TODAY

French anti-terrorism forces arrested four people, including a 16-year-old girl, and uncovered a makeshift laboratory with explosives material as they thwarted a suspected new terror attack, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Friday.

The arrests Friday were in the Montpellier area of southern France. The prosecutor’s office said around 70 grams of TATP were seized. The explosive, which can be made from readily available ingredients, was used in the November 2015 attack in Paris and the March 2016 attack in Brussels carried out by Islamic State extremists. The men arrested were aged 20, 26 and 33.

Unconfirmed French media reports said the people arrested were planning a suicide bombing on a tourist site in Paris. The prosecutor's office, which handles terrorism investigations in France, has not commented on the reports.

The arrests came a week after a machete-wielding assailant who shouted "Allahu Akbar!" was shot by soldiers outside the Louvre Museum in central Paris. Investigators found no links between the Egyptian-born attacker and militant groups but the episode occurred as France remains on high alert for new attacks.

Amid heightened new security measures, Paris' city council announced this week that it plans to permanently install a bullet-proof glass barrier around the Eiffel Tower. A temporary fence was put in place last June.

More than 230 people have died in terror attacks in France over the last two years.

Earlier this week the White House released a list of 78 terror attacks that it claimed the media failed to adequately report.

The list followed comments from President Trump in which he said "in many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn't want to report it."

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer subsequently clarified Trump's remarks. "Protests will get blown out of the water, and yet an attack or a foiled attack doesn’t necessarily get the same coverage," he said.

USA TODAY reported on 59 of the 78 attacks cited in the White House list.

In a separate counter-terrorism operation in the United Kingdom on Friday, police arrested a 44-year-old man as he disembarked in London from a flight from Iraq. Few details were given but the man was detained on "suspicion of preparation of terrorists acts." In another case, police said a 31-year-old man was released on bail pending a hearing date in March. He was previously arrested about 100 miles north of London in east Norfolk on suspicion of raising funds for terrorist activities.

Media covered most of 78 terror attacks Trump said 'not even being reported'

Louvre museum reopens as Egypt identifies machete attacker