The arrested people reportedly include five men and a woman.

Security officials picked the people from Brittany, north-east and south-east France, reports said.

An investigation is now taking place into a "criminal terrorist association", a judicial source told BBC.

Details of the suspect and the alleged plot are still not known.

"This investigation is looking into a plot, vague and ill-defined at this stage, involving violent action against the president of the republic," prosecutors told BBC.

The suspects had reportedly been under surveillance by France's domestic security agency, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Intérieure (DGSI), reported the British media outlet.

Image: UN website