Soldiers patrol in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, November 16, 2015.
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TWO people were being questioned by anti-terrorist police in France today after a auto containing half a dozen gas canisters was found close to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
The Peugeot 607 was found along the Seine without registration plates and its hazard light flushing few hundred meters from the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Although unmarked, investigators quickly traced the vehicle to its owner.
A notebook containing writing in Arabic was also found in the auto, according to the mayor of the district of Paris where the vehicle was found.
Bernard Cazeneuve, the Interior Minister, declined to comment specifically on the arrest.
The auto, a Peugeot 607, found near the iconic cathedral belonged to a person known to the French intelligence service, a police official has confirmed. One of those taken into custody was already on the terrorism watch list, and both remain in custody at this time.
The two suspects being held at a high-security police station in Paris are a man aged 34 and his 29-year-old female partner, who live in the Loiret department, south of Paris.
France remains on high alert since January past year. No detonator or firing device were found, and the vehicle was not reported as stolen.
Officials said his daughter was known to police for wanting to leave for Syria, where scores of religiously radicalised people of French and other nationalities have joined the ranks of the Islamic State militant group.
In July, 86 people were killed and dozens injured when a truck ploughed into a Bastille Day crowd in the Mediterranean resort of Nice. Six canisters filled with gas were found in the trunk and an empty one in the vehicle.
France remains on high alert for terrorism after a series of attacks across the country since January a year ago, most recently after 86 people were killed in Nice when a truck driver deliberately drove into a crowd of Bastille Day revellers.
Less than a fortnight later two young jihadists murdered a priest near the northern city of Rouen.
“Once they have bomb makers in place on our soil, they’ll be able to avoid sacrificing fighters while creating maximum damage”, he said at a parliamentary national defence committee meeting.
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France’s top prosecutor said last week around 700 French nationals were now in Syria.
