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The Islamic State group (IS) has released an audio message purportedly from its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, his first in almost in a year.

In a speech, he calls on IS supporters to «persevere», despite the losses the group has suffered in Iraq and Syria. The recording’s authenticity could not be verified, but experts said the voice resembled that heard in other messages.

Although it is undated, there are references to recent events, including the detention of a US pastor in Turkey.

Russia claimed last year that it had probably killed Baghdadi in an air strike in Syria, but US commanders said they believed he was still alive and hiding in a remote area on the Syria-Iraq border.

In July, IS news outlets reported that Baghdadi’s son Hudhayfah had been killed during an IS «commando operation» in the Syrian province of Homs.

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A man killed his mother and sister and wounded a third person on a street in a Paris suburb before being killed by police.

French Interior Minister Gérard Collomb said the incident was not currently being treated as a terror attack.

The Islamic State group claimed it was behind the attack but offered no proof. Some reports say the man threatened to kill police and shouted «Allahu Akbar» («God is greatest» in Arabic) before he was shot.

The man ran into a house after attacking his victims before coming out with a knife in his hand, at which point he was shot by police.

Speaking in the south-western suburb of Trappes where the incident took place, Mr Collomb said the attacker appeared to have had «significant psychiatric problems». He said the man had been known to police for expressing extremist views, but was «unstable» and «not someone who could respond to instructions from a terrorist group».

France has been on constant alert for jihadist terrorist attacks since the Paris attacks of 2015.

Trappes, close to Versailles, is known for gang violence and poverty. It also has Islamists among its large Muslim population, with 50 local people suspected of having left France to fight for the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, according to security sources quoted by AFP.

A Russian man believed to hold radical Islamist views has been arrested in Berlin on suspicion of planning an attack with explosives.

Police said the man, named as Magomed-Ali C, and a French accomplice had stockpiled explosives in their flat in October 2016. However, their plans were disrupted by police and they separated soon after. The Frenchman, Clément B, was arrested in Marseilles in April 2017, accused of plotting an imminent attack.

German prosecutors said that the pair had planned an attack «at an unknown location in Germany, meant to maim or kill the greatest possible number of people». The explosives found in Magomed-Ali C’s flat was triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, which has been used in several terror attacks, including the 2017 bomb attack on Manchester Arena and the 2015 Paris attacks claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.

French police found the same substance at Clément B’s Marseille home last year – along with an IS flag, a loaded Uzi sub-machine gun, two pistols, and a homemade grenade.

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Crime investigators have uncovered what they say is a «sophisticated» illegal gun factory on an industrial estate.

Two handguns and ammunition were found by officers who arrested three men leaving the building on the Diplocks estate in Hailsham, East Sussex.

The National Crime Agency said it subsequently found equipment which it believes is part of a «large-scale» gun and ammunition manufacturing operation.

Three men have been remanded in custody until 17 September on firearms charges.

Investigators discovered the set-up when they went to the building, housing an engineering workshop, in Diplocks Way on Saturday.

The NCA said the three men were arrested at the site and a Taser was used to detain one of them.

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Passengers travelling with banned items like CS spray, knives and air rifles are partly to blame for a doubling of crime at airports in two years, police have said.

There were 5,234 crimes at or close to airports in England and Wales in 2017, compared with 2,432 in 2015.

Vehicle crime and weapons are among the types of crime to have increased. Police said they confiscated small weapons from people whose own countries legally allow possession.

The airport with the largest number of overall crimes recorded on or near the premises was Stansted, with 1,870 in 2017 and 721 in the first five months of 2018.

In total there were 890 possession of weapons offences in 2017, and 434 in the first three months of 2018. This compares with 226 in the whole of 2015.

Stansted Airport accounted for the vast majority of these, with 718 crimes in 2017.

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