French President Emmanuel Macron seeks extension of state of emergency

French President Emmanuel Macron (2-L) attends a weekly Defense Council at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 24, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

France’s new president will ask the parliament to extend a state of emergency that was imposed after the 2015 deadly attacks by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in and around the capital Paris.

Emmanuel Macron said in a statement on Wednesday that he would ask lawmakers to prolong the measure from July 15 until November 1.

The current state of emergency expires in mid-July.

The French president made the decision after a security meeting in which senior officials "studied the implications of this new terrorist attack on measures of protection to ensure the security of our compatriots."

The statement from the Elysée presidential palace also mentioned "the bonds that unite France and the United Kingdom in the fight against terrorism."

On May 22, a bomb attack at a music venue in Manchester, England, killed 22 people.

The renewal of state of emergency in France will be the sixth of its kind. The first came into force in November 2015, after Daesh carried out a string of attacks in and around the French capital. At least 130 people were killed.

Extraordinary police powers, however, failed to prevent another major terror attack in the coastal city of Nice, which killed 86 participants in a national holiday event at the time of street celebrations in July last year.

During the Paris attacks in 2015, Daesh-affiliated terrorists used guns and explosive vests to strike almost simultaneously a concert hall, a major stadium, and restaurants and bars, injuring hundreds in addition to those killed.

Then French President Francois Hollande described the attacks as an “act of war.” Police forces conducted hundreds of raids across the country in search of suspects. Raids were also conducted in the Belgian city of Brussels, where a main suspect was arrested.