Interior Ministry spokesperson Walid Louguini told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the impressive deployment of forces in the Tunisian capital city was just part of “security vigilance measures.”

Police forces, some of them wearing balaclavas, were lining up the city’s main avenue, which has been partially closed to road traffic, while the French embassy building was under heavy protection.

The operation came a week after Tunisian authorities announced the dismantling of a cell that it said had planned terror attacks at police stations and hotels in the seaside city of Sousse, about 150km south-east of Tunis.

Sousse was hit by an attack last June that left 38 people dead.