An explosive belt was found in a suburb south of Paris on Monday, a spokesperson for the city's prosecutor told NBC News.
The discovery in the Montrouge neighborhood triggered new worries as investigators continued an international manhunt for suspects in a series of coordinated attacks on Nov. 13 in which 130 people died. At the same time, French authorities are scrambling to to prevent other attacks from taking place.
A cellphone was found near the belt, the prosecutor's spokesperson said.
Authorities cordoned off a street in Montrouge, a witness told NBC News. The witness, a student who gave only the name Awa, said police had ordered an evacuation of a building where she lives with many other university students.
She described being awakened by what she thought was a fire alarm, then being told to leave immediately. Later, after waiting outside for hours, the mayor of Montrouge told her that the bomb belt had been disabled.
French police told The Associated Press that the belt was found by a street cleaner in a pile of rubble. Investigators are analyzing it to see if it may have been used in the earlier attacks, an unnamed official for the judicial police told The AP.
