REUTERS/Christian HartmannThree women arrested in connection with a auto loaded with gas cylinders found in a side road near Notre Dame cathedral had been planning an attack on a Paris railway station, the French interior ministry said.
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Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the 19-year-old and her accomplices were preparing “imminent” attacks.
They also wanted to target police officers.
“France is confronted with a terrorist threat of unprecedented scale”, Cazeneuve said.
Speaking on Friday morning, an interior ministry official told Reuters: “An alert has been issued to all stations, but they had planned to attack the Gare de Lyon on Thursday”.
Another official, who also can not be identified when speaking about the investigation, said Madani had pulled a knife during the raid outside a small apartment building near the Boussy-Saint-Antoine train station.
On Sunday, 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.
They were arrested in Boussy-Saint-Antoine, south of Paris.
Four people – two brothers and their girlfriends – are already in custody over the discovery of the auto.
Madani had been classed as unsafe by police.
Scores of radicalized people of French and other nationalities are in Syria and Iraq fighting for Islamic State.
Ines M was carrying a “last testament” letter in which she swore allegiance to Islamic State and pledged to avenge the death of Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, an ISIS spokesman killed by a USA drone last month.
A police officer suffered a knife wound to the stomach during the arrests late Thursday in Boussy-Saint-Antoine, south of Paris.
The investigation into the discovery of the auto continues.
The vehicle also contained three jerry cans of diesel and was found with its hazard lights on.
Anti-terrorism units did not discover detonators in the vehicle, which carried no registration plate, but they found documents written in Arabic language.
Several people continue to be questioned.
A man arrested Thursday also had ties to the dead jihadi, Larossi Abballa, who filmed himself on Facebook Live pledging allegiance to IS as he sat in the home of the couple he had killed, one of the officials said.
Boumeddiene left France just before the attacks on the capital and is believed to have headed to Isis-held territory.
French anti-terrorism police have launched an investigation.
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The Interior Ministry official said the youngest of the three women, a 19-year-old whose father owned the auto, was already suspected by police of wanting to wage jihad for Islamic State in Syria.
