The two arrests late on Wednesday takes the number held in custody by police to four.
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Three radicalised young women who French authorities say were probably preparing “new and imminent violent action” have been arrested at a railway station south east of Paris after they were linked to the discovery of a auto packed with gas cylinders left near Notre Dame cathedral last weekend, the government has said.
The suspect – 29 and on a terror watch list – disappeared with her boyfriend, aged 34, early on Sunday morning.
One of the canisters, on the front passenger seat, was empty, and there were no detonating devices inside.
Police in France have made two arrests in relation to a suspicious vehicle found near the highly-popular Notre Dame cathedral in the capital Paris.
Photographs of the vehicle after it was discovered showed its boot open and the gas canisters placed on the ground in a quiet side street opposite the cathedral.
He said they appeared to be preparing “new violent and imminent actions”.
A bar employee working near Notre Dame raised the alert on Sunday after noticing a gas cylinder on the back seat of the auto, police said. CNN affiliate BFMTV said the owner of the vehicle reported two daughters as missing and they were arrested Thursday.
France has been on high alert for terror since ISIS carried out an attack in Paris last November that killed 130 people.
France Info radio said police also found several diesel fuel cans in the trunk.
The owner of the auto is on a French intelligence service watch list of people suspected of religious radicalization, Reuters reported.
His daughter is known to police for wanting to leave for Syria, officials said.
“Since the start of the year, we have arrested 260 people, a lot of them incarcerated, a significant number of whom were preparing attacks that could have led to tragedies”, said the minister.
A state of emergency declared at that time is still in place and gives police extra search and arrest powers but debate still rages over security levels, following a further attack on July 14 in which a man mowed into crowds in the city of Nice, killing 86.
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“France is facing an unprecedented threat” from people recruited and indoctrinated by terrorists in Syria and Iraq, said Cazeneuve, who described Thursday’s operation in Boissy Saint Antoine as “a race against the clock”.
