A French police investigation has found that foreigners placed pig heads in front of at least nine mosques in and around Paris earlier this week, the prosecutor's office in the French capital said, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
The investigation has found that the pig heads "were placed there by foreign nationals with the clear intention of causing tension," a prosecutor's office statement said, adding that the foreigners left the country immediately.
A farmer in Normandy told investigators that two people had come to him to buy pig heads. He described their car, which had Serbian license plates, the Paris prosecutor's office said.
They were found video footage of the men arriving in Paris in the same car on the night of Monday to Tuesday (September 8 to 9). The footage shows the two men leaving pig heads in front of several mosques. They may have used a Croatian SIM card that was traced to cross the French-Belgian border on Tuesday after the crime, Reuters notes.
French authorities on Tuesday pledged support for the Muslim population amid growing anti-Islam sentiment, the agency recalls.
France has the largest Muslim population in Europe - more than 6 million people. Muslims consider pigs unclean, Reuters recalls.
Paris police chief Laurent Nunes said he did not rule out foreign interference in order to cause unrest in France, which is facing a fiscal and political crisis.
France has in the past accused Russia of similar attempts. Three Serbs were accused of ties to a “foreign power” and arrested after they desecrated synagogues and a Holocaust memorial with green paint in May, the agency recalls.