PARIS — A 28-year-old man carrying two guns, ammunition, and a Koran was arrested at a hotel in Disneyland Paris on Thursday afternoon, according to a Disney executive, raising a new round of fear two months after 130 people were killed in a coordinated series of terrorist attacks on the French capital.
The man was arrested at Disney’s Hotel New York, next to the Disney Village retail, dining, and entertainment complex that is part of the Disneyland Paris amusement park. The theme park, Europe’s largest, opened in 1992 in Marne-la-Vallée, about 20 miles east of central Paris.
“During a routine security screening checkpoint at one of our hotels, weapons were discovered in a guest’s luggage through our X-ray machine,’’ said François Banon, vice president of communication and public affairs at Disneyland Paris. “The police were immediately notified and the individual was arrested.’’
He did not resist his detention, and he was turned over to local police, according to reports in French news media. The man was carrying two semiautomatic 7.65-mm pistols and a box of cartridges.
“I’d like to highlight that the security services of Disney and the police forces immediately reacted,’’ Jean-Luc Marx, the top police official in Seine-et-Marne, told Le Parisien, “so that this individual was put somewhere where he could do no harm — if that was indeed his intention, we don’t know yet.’’
A security perimeter was established around the man’s vehicle, and a woman who had accompanied him — and appeared to have tried to flee — was also taken into custody, Agence France-Presse reported, citing unidentified police sources.
An employee at the police prefecture for Seine-et-Marne, the French administrative department that includes Marne-la-Vallée, said authorities there had no immediate comment, and referred inquiries to the Interior Ministry.
The Interior Ministry’s press office said it was investigating the matter and did not yet have information on the identities of the two people who had been detained.
France has been in a state of emergency since the Nov. 13 attacks by the Islamic State in and around Paris. The police and judicial authorities have been given extraordinary powers to detain and question individuals, and prominent landmarks continue to be heavily guarded.
