Five coffins were discovered on Saturday 1 June at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, leading to three people being taken into police custody. A direct link has been established with the incident involving the red hands found on the Shoah memorial in Paris in mid-May, according to a police source at H24 MEDIA and a report in Le Monde

One of the suspects is a 34-year-old Bulgarian man, who has not yet been arrested. The Wall of the Righteous, bearing the names of those who helped Jews during the Second World War, was vandalised with red hands at the Shoah Memorial on the night of 13 to 14 May.

According to a police source, the Bulgarian had been checked by the police shortly before the incident, but the link with the case had not yet been made, so he was not questioned. It was only later that investigators linked the two cases through his identity.

The coffins, marked ‘Soldats français de l’Ukraine’, were spotted at around 8.30am on Saturday, when a Bulgarian-registered van was driving back and forth near the Eiffel Tower. Three men unloaded five coffins, covering them with French flags. Police arrested the driver, who said he had been paid 40 euros to transport the people and cargo from Bulgaria, meeting them for the first time the day before.

The bomb squad found bags of plaster in the coffins. The investigation, opened for ‘premeditated violence’, led to the driver being taken into custody.

Using video surveillance, investigators quickly identified the other two suspects, who were arrested at Bercy station as they tried to flee to Berlin. In police custody, the three suspects stated that they were unemployed and had acted for money: the driver for 120 euros and the other two for 400 euros. The suspects are a 16-year-old Ukrainian, a 25-year-old German and a 38-year-old Bulgarian, all of whom are unknown to the authorities.