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| Security has been stepped up at Notre Dame after the discovery of the suspect vehicle |
Three women arrested over a foiled attack in Paris were directed by so-called Islamic State (IS) from Syria, a French prosecutor has said.
The group “wanted to make the women into fighters”, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.
A policeman was stabbed during an operation late on Thursday to arrest the women, after the discovery of a suspect car containing gas canisters.
The vehicle was found near Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on Sunday.
Police shot and wounded one of the women during the operation in Boussy-Saint-Antoine, south-east of the city.
One woman, aged 19, reportedly declared her allegiance to IS in a letter.
The others arrested were said to be aged 39 and 23.
Mr Molins said one of the women had been engaged to both Larossi Abballa, who killed two police officials in June before being shot dead himself, and subsequently to Adel Kermiche, who was shot dead by police in July after slitting the throat of an elderly priest in his church.
Her current fiance was arrested on Thursday, Mr Molins said.
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| Police searched an apartment that the arrested women had been seen leaving |
The women and their associates had already been under surveillance but the discovery of the gas-filled car near Notre Dame had pitted the security forces in “a race against time” to arrest them, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
The three women were believed to be planning other imminent and violent attacks, he said.
President Francois Hollande said: “An attack was derailed… a group has been disbanded, but there are others and we must be able to act each time before it is too late and that’s what we’re doing.”
Mr Molins said the latest plot provided more evidence that IS was ready to use women for attacks.
“If at first it seemed that women were confined to carrying out family and domestic tasks by the terrorist organisation, we are now forced to see that vision is largely outdated,” he said.
