PARIS (AP) – Three women radicals with apparent plans for “imminent” violence were detained Thursday after a standoff with French police, as part of a terrorism investigation into six gas canisters found in a car abandoned near Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the interior minister said.
The discovery of the mysterious car has revived worries about the threat of new attacks in France, which has already repeatedly targeted by Islamic State extremists and remains under a state of emergency. Seven people are now in custody in the Notre Dame case.
The three women were detained in an operation Thursday night in Boussy-Saint-Antoine south of Paris in a “veritable race against the clock,” Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters. One of the women attacked police, and an intelligence officer was hospitalized with a knife wound to the shoulder. One suspect was also injured, Cazeneuve said.
“These radicalized, fanatic women, aged 39, 23 and 19 years old, were likely preparing new violent actions, particularly imminent,” he said. “France is confronted with a terrorist threat of unprecedented scale. … It requires the vigilance of all our compatriots.”
The 19-year-old is the daughter of the owner of the abandoned car, according to two officials who were not authorized to be publicly named discussing an ongoing operation.