Paris: France today said it had foiled a jihadist plot to attack a church after an Algerian who accidentally shot himself was found with a stash of weapons and documents mentioning Islamist militant groups.

The 24-year-old IT student Sid Ahmed Ghlam's plans were exposed purely by chance after he called an ambulance saying he had been shot during an armed robbery at his Paris home, prosecutor Francois Molins told journalists.