Last Sunday, a vehicle loaded with gas cylinders was found near Notre Dame cathedral along with jerry cans of diesel, leading to the discovery of a plot to attack a Paris railway station.
Advertisement
The police suspect him of plotting “in response to calls from Syria to attack France”, one of the sources said, just days after a separate plot to blow up a vehicle packed with gas cannisters was allegedly foiled in central Paris.
The three women arrested over a thwarted attack on Thursday were guided by Islamic State (IS) insurgents in Syria, Francois Molins, Paris prosecutor said on Friday.
The two women being sought are the daughters of the car’s owner – who was also known to authorities for spreading Islamist ideas.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Saturday that 293 people have been arrested this year for “links to terrorist networks”.
The auto contained five gas cylinders and three bottles of diesel fuel, broadcaster France 24 said.
Before the police raid, Ines had time to write a farewell letter to her mother, which she left on site.
According to the Le Monde newspaper, Madani had been known to authorities since 2015, when she unsuccessfully attempted to leave France for Syria, where thousands of foreign-born fighters joined the Islamic State in previous years.
News of the arrest came shortly after Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Sunday that “every day attacks are foiled”.
Anthropologist Dounia Bouzar, who has worked with hundreds of radicalized French youngsters and their parents, said she was not surprised that women had been among those arrested in a terrorism investigation.
Found mistakes in this report?
Paris anti-terror prosecutor Francois Molins said that when she was arrested, Madani had the keys to the auto in her bag, as well as a written pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Laurent Nunez, the police commissioner of the Bouches-du-Rhone region, said no detonation device was found.
The women were arrested after police linked the auto at the scene to a house in the Essonne region south of Paris.
Two gas cylinders were found in the auto, the paper said, adding that the area has been put under heavy security. She was then shot and wounded by another police officer. It was not immediately clear why the teen was under house arrest.
Advertisement
French security services are particularly anxious about the danger posed by extremists returning from Syria after fighting with IS forces.
