French police have foiled five terror attacks in recent months, Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said, according to BBC News.

He told French radio that the latest was a planned attack on churches in the Paris suburb of Villejuif.

A French-Algerian man was arrested on Sunday, April 19 over the alleged plan, after he apparently shot himself by accident and called an ambulance.

France stepped up security following attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in January.

"The threat has never been so high," Mr Valls told France Inter radio. "We have never had to face this kind of terrorism in our history."

He said 1,573 French citizens or residents had been implicated in "terror networks" - 442 of those were currently believed to be in Syria.

Ninety-seven of those had died in Syria or Iraq, including seven while carrying out suicide attacks, he added.