Three women aged 19, 23, and 39 were maintained in detention over night on terrorism charges for their alleged involvement in a failed vehicle bomb attempt on September 4 in central Paris, media sources reported Tuesday.
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French authorities charged a woman on Saturday night with “terrorist criminal association” after she organized alongside three other women an attack to the Notre Dame Cathedral, in the heart of Paris. Two of the women were accused of attacking police officers with knives during the police operation.
The three women were remanded in custody after being interviewed on Monday (12 September), and placed under investigation for involvement in a terrorist conspiracy. Ines M and Sarah H were also charged with attempted terrorist murders of public officers and Amel S with being an accomplice to those attempts, the office said.
Investigators also said that they believe the women were planning other attacks in the capital, according to “France Info” radio.
The suspects were charged as France remains on its highest state of alert following two attacks in July where a truck was driven into spectators in Nice on Bastille Day, killing 86 people and two men slit the throat of priest Jacques Hamel in Normandy.
Police officials reported the arrest of six women, four of which were later released.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the terror threat was at a “maximum” and that authorities were preventing attacks and smashing jihadist networks “every day”.
As many as 15,000 people were considered by French authorities as radicals who posed a potential threat, he added.
One of them was found in possession of a letter professing her allegiance to IS, which ordered the carnage in Paris in November that left 130 people dead.
The youth had written to contacts on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app widely used by jihadists, of his plans to carry out a knife attack, sources said.
On Sept. 4, a Peugeot 607 containing seven gas cylinders, including an empty one on the front passenger seat, and three cans of diesel fuel was found near the famous tourist place Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Police found five more cylinders in the car’s trunk.
A fourth woman, Ornella Gilligman, 29, is already under investigation.
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The 23-year-old woman was shot while being arrested after she stabbed a policeman.
