A 23-year-old French air force sergeant has been accused of planning to attack a mosque as worshippers celebrated the end of Ramadan.

 

A police source said the suspect, who has not been identified, admitted he was planning to fire shots at the Minguettes mosque in Vénissieux, a suburb of Lyon, at the end of the Muslim holy month last Thursday.

 

He has been in custody since Wednesday when he was detained by police at an airbase near Lyon, London’s The Guardian reported.

 

After four days of questioning, he appeared in a Paris court during the weekend and was put under formal investigation for being in "possession of ammunition linked to a terrorist enterprise" against a place of worship.

 

He reportedly admitted throwing an incendiary device at a mosque at Libourne, near Bordeaux, last August. No one was injured in the incident and damage to the mosque reported as minimal.

 

The man’s family recently contacted authorities after finding documents suggesting he had extremist views and was linked to terrorist groups, according to The Guardian.

 

According to the Islamophobia Observatory, attacks and threats to mosques rose by 35 percent during the first six months of 2013 compared to the same period last year. A report published in July recorded 108 attacks compared with 80 reported during the first half of 2012.

The number of reported “threats and insults” rose from 63 in 2012 to 84 during the same period this year.