Paris police officer stabbed during 'terror' arrests

A French police officer was stabbed during the arrest of three women in connection with a car found with gas canisters near Paris's Notre Dame cathedral.

Authorities say three women were taken into custody in the southern Paris suburb of Boussy-Saint-Antoine. One stabbed a police officer before being shot and wounded, according to a source cited in the Wall Street Journal.

Officials claim the women – aged 39, 23 and 19 – were "radicalised and fanatical", and likely to have been "preparing new violent and imminent actions".

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Police discovered the car, which had no licence plate, parked in the shadow of the famous cathedral on Sunday. A gas canister was found on the front seat with six others in the trunk, along with three bottles of gasoline. No detonator was found.

A nationwide manhunt was sparked, leading to the detention of three women who, police say, "were possibly planning to blow up the car". French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve says investigators have been in a "race against time".

One of those arrested is reportedly the daughter of the car owner who had already been questioned. According to French media, the owner was on an intelligence watch-list.

Last November, 130 people died in terror attacks in Paris and a state of emergency his still in place. Authorities have cancelled events across France this summer in response to the terror threat.