The women behind a foiled attack in Paris were guided by the Islamic State group from Syria, the city’s prosecutor said on Friday.
“The terrorist organisation uses not only women, but young women, who get to know them and develop their plot from a distance,” Francois Molins told a news conference.
A failed attack involving a car loaded with gas canisters near Notre Dame Cathedral was spearheaded by a group of women that included a 19-year-old whose written pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State group was found by police.
Molins spoke a day after three women were arrested, including a teen whose father owned the car that contained cylinders of gas.
No detonators were in the car, discovered on Sunday morning.
One of the women detained in a police raid over a failed attack near Notre Dame Cathedral was engaged separately to two French extremists who themselves carried out deadly attacks this year, Molins said.
Molins said the woman was engaged to Larossi Abballa, who killed two police officials in Magnanville in June and filmed the aftermath on Facebook Live before dying in a police raid.
He said she was also betrothed to Adel Kermiche, who slit the throat of an elderly French priest during morning Mass in July.
{{/usCountry}}He said she was also betrothed to Adel Kermiche, who slit the throat of an elderly French priest during morning Mass in July.
{{/usCountry}}Her current fiance was arrested on Thursday, Molins said.