The Interior Ministry said all train stations had been put on alert but that the intended target had been the Gare de Lyon, a mainline train station less than 3 km (two miles) from Notre Dame in central Paris.
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A cell of young women behind a thwarted attack near Notre Dame Cathedral were radicalized by the Islamic State group and guided by commanders in Syria, the Paris prosecutor said Friday.
The woman, identified only as Sarah H, then became engaged to Adel Kermiche, one of two jihadists who slit the throat of an elderly priest in July near the northern city of Rouen, the prosecutor said. Police found five more cylinders in the car’s trunk.
The Peugeot 607 was found abandoned in Rue du Petit-Pont, with its hazard lights flashing and no number plates.
Police intercepted communications between Madani and another woman which confirmed their fear they were about to try to strike again.
The arrests of three women Thursday came in a “veritable race against the clock”, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters. The auto was found abandoned and with its lights on, but forensics teams have since examined the vehicle and declared it safe.
They had claimed allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group and left a testament. Video footage of the Paris raid showed a veiled woman being carried off by police while shouting “Allahu Akbar” which means “God is the greatest”.
Larossi Abballa killed two police officials in Magnanville and filmed the aftermath on Facebook Live before being shot dead in a raid on his home. The prosecutor said the teenager could have been implicated in the planned terrorist attack.
The others arrested were said to be aged 39 and 23.
Police sources said no detonator had been found in the auto, though the vehicle also contained three jerry cans of diesel fuel.
Another man, Mohamed Lamine A, who was due to marry Sarah H, was also arrested on Thursday.
He said the women had been “determined” to mount the attack in the country, which has lost more than 230 people to attacks by Islamist terrorists since January 2015.
Police shot and wounded Ines M., who was the driver of the abandoned vehicle.
According to the French authorities, the three women were planning to attack a Paris railway station this week.
Gas canisters and fuel can be used in attempts to make vehicle bombs, such as those discovered and disabled in London in 2007 and explosives used by Algerian extremists in Paris during the 1990s.
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Explosive gas canisters filled with nails were the weapon used in bomb attacks by Algerian extremists on Paris in the 1990s. For the protection of AP and its licensors, content may not be copied, altered or redistributed in any form.
