Cazeneuve said the suspects were “radicalized fanatics” who were preparing “new violent … and imminent actions”. More than 200 people have died in terrorist attacks over the past year and a half in France.
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French security services are particularly anxious about the danger posed by extremists returning from Syria after fighting with ISIS forces, with 700 French nationals still in the country, according to France’s top prosecutor.
Police discovered the auto, which had no licence plate, parked in the shadow of the famous cathedral on Sunday.
Bernard Cazeneuve said the detentions of the “radicalised” women aged 19, 23, and 39 are linked to the discovery of an abandoned auto.
The 26-year-old Moroccan and 40-year-old Algerian, who were arrested on 18 December, are suspected of helping two other suspects extradited to France earlier this year.
A couple, aged 34 and 29, have been arrested in connection to the incident.
One gas canister was found on the front seat while six others were recovered from the car’s trunk, authorities said, adding that no detonator was found.
The arrests resulted from an investigation of a auto containing gas cylinders found near Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral earlier this week.
Documents with writing in Arabic were found in the vehicle, which had no registration plates and was left with its hazard lights flashing.
The vehicle was found on the Quai de Montebello, just metres from the cathedral, along a stretch of the Seine riverside.
Police officers stand guard as they take part in a raid in Boussy-Saint-Antoine, south-east of Paris, on Thursday.
That cylinder was found to be empty but five full cylinders were found in the boot of the vehicle.
The 19-year-old woman is know to police for attempting to leave to Syria.
Last November a group of men carried out shooting and suicide bombing attacks across Paris, killing 130 people and injuring hundreds.
The discovery of the mysterious vehicle has revived worries about the threat of new attacks in France, which has already repeatedly targeted by Islamic State extremists and remains under a state of emergency.
Speaking on Wednesday, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the intentions of those arrested were as yet unknown.
In July, 86 people were killed and dozens injured when a lorry ploughed into a Bastille Day crowd in the Mediterranean resort of Nice.
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In a an interview with Le Monde newspaper earlier this week, Paris prosecutor François Molins said that the apparent weakening of ISIS, (Daesh) positions in Syria, Iraq and Libya led to an increased risk of attacks upon foreign targets.
