During the arrest, one of the women stabbed a police officer, injuring him in the shoulder, before officers shot and wounded her. TV footage showed an officer leaving the scene carrying a large knife.
Advertisement
A security official, who was not authorized to be publicly identified, told AP that French authorities have a document in which Madani declared allegiance to the extremist group.
Four people – two brothers and their girlfriends – are already in custody over the discovery of the vehicle.
Police sources said no detonator had been found in the auto, though the vehicle also contained three jerry cans of diesel fuel.
Speaking on Thursday, President Francois Hollande referred to attack plots that have been foiled “in recent days”, without elaborating.
The man’s brother is himself in custody over suspected links to Larossi Abballa, a jihadist who killed a police officer and his girlfriend in a Paris suburb in June, a source said.
Three women arrested in raids in France were a terror cell directed by ISIS from Syria, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Friday.
An interior ministry statement said: “An alert has been issued to all stations but they had planned to attack the Gare de Lyon on Thursday”.
Police found a letter on Madani, written to her mother, in which she stated she wanted to avenge the death of Abou Mohammed al-Adnani, the senior figure from Isis who has ordered attacks on western targets particularly in France.
In all nine arrests have been made in connection the vehicle abandoned at Notre Dame, incudling one woman believed to have been in the auto with Madani.
Her current fiance was arrested on Thursday, Molins said.
It had no number plates, its hazard lights were flashing and there was an empty gas cylinder on a seat.
Authorities had said earlier they were searching for the two daughters of the owner of the Peugeot 607.
In video filmed by a neighbour, a veiled woman, her face uncovered, is seen being carried away by police as she cries out “Allahu Akbar” or “God is the Greatest” in Arabic.
One of the two suspects in the priest’s killing in northern France was known to anti-terror authorities after attempting a trip to Syria, a French anti-terrorism prosecutor said.
Women in the group do not take part in attacks, he said, but are there “to ensure the longevity of the caliphate” by having babies and providing moral support.
Advertisement
France has been under a state of emergency since the Paris terror attacks in November a year ago, and authorities have struggled to monitor thousands of domestic radicals on their radar. Elsewhere in Paris, police used explosives to disable an illegally parked motorcycle.
