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French policeman stabbed during gas canister car arrests | French policeman stabbed during gas canister car arrests |
(about 13 hours later) | |
A French policeman has been stabbed during an operation to arrest three women over a suspect car containing gas canisters, which 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 of the three women, aged 19, reportedly swore allegiance to so-called Islamic State. | |
In November, 130 people died in Paris in attacks by the group. | |
A state of emergency has been in place in France since then. | A state of emergency has been in place in France since then. |
A Peugeot 607 containing gas canisters was found early on Sunday on the Quai de Montebello, just metres (yards) from the cathedral, which attracts millions of tourists every year. | |
The car had its hazard warning lights flashing and no number plates, police say. | |
One of the canisters, on the front passenger seat, was empty, and there were no detonators inside. | |
Documents with writing in Arabic were also found in the car, police say. | |
Suspects 'stressed' | |
Boussy-Saint-Antoine resident Joachim Fortes Sanchez, 21, said he had seen the three women - aged 39, 23 and 19 - before they were arrested during Thursday night's operation. | |
They "appeared stressed, they were looking all around", he told AFP news agency. | |
When they were arrested, "a young woman pulled out a knife and struck a policeman... It happened very quickly". | |
The French interior ministry tweeted that the police officer had been stabbed in the shoulder. It said his injuries were not life-threatening. | |
Police went on to search an apartment the three women had been seen leaving. | |
The 19-year-old woman, said to be a daughter of the car's owner, is the main suspect in the suspected plot. | |
A source close to the investigation told RTL radio (in French) a letter had been found in which she pledged allegiance to IS. | |
The letter said the three women wanted to avenge the death of the group's chief strategist, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, in Syria in August, the station reported. | |
The suspects "had been radicalised, were fanatics and were in all likelihood preparing an imminent, violent act", said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. | |
Investigators, he said, had been in a "race against time". | |
According to French media, the car owner was on an intelligence watch-list. He has already been questioned. | |
A man on the terrorism watch list was arrested on Wednesday as well as an associate of the car's owner. | A man on the terrorism watch list was arrested on Wednesday as well as an associate of the car's owner. |