French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says "security agencies have been thwarting terror plots every single day".
"Car...w/ gas cylinders is found outside a synagogue ,,days after an all-female IS cell planned 2blow up a French.." https://t.co/rkXAzPUe0g— ARnews 1936 (@ARnews1936) September 11, 2016
A car filled with gas cylinders was today found parked outside a synagogue in the south of France.
The suspicious vehicle was discovered by police officers after it was left near the Bar Yohaye synagogue in Marseille.
Dozens of worshippers were inside the building and were attending a service on Saturday morning.
The discovery comes just one week after a similar vehicle - also filled with gas cylinders - was left outside the famous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
A jihadi woman, 29, who is on a terror watch list, masterminded the plan and disappeared with her boyfriend, aged 34, last Sunday morning.
Her Peugeot 607 was found with its lights flashing in a no-parking zone in Paris's Rue du Petit-Point, across the River Seine from Notre Dame, at 7.30am.
There were seven gas canisters inside - prompting fears of a terrorist attack on the ancient place of worship, which is high on a list of ISIS targets.
Three women were arrested and it was reported that they were allegedly planning to blow up the busy Gare du Lyon train station in Paris.
The discovery in Marseille sparked an evacuation of the area and an investigation has now been launched.
Laurent Nunez, the police commissioner of the Bouches-du-Rhone region, said no detonation device was found.
French Prime Minister Warns of Threat From 15,000 Wannabe Jihadists https://t.co/p1k80eluq9 pic.twitter.com/SxOwhMh4jf— Voice of Europe (@V_of_Europe) September 11, 2016
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — France is facing the "maximum threat" from terrorists both inside and outside the country, he said. An estimated 700 French nationals are fighting in Syria and Iraq, including 275 women and dozens of children.
You can say there are 15,000 people under scrutiny because they are in the process of radicalization," Valls told French radio station Europe 1.Security agencies have been thwarting terror plots every single day, Valls said.
Earlier this week, three radicalized women were arrested in connection to a car containing gas canisters that was found a week ago near Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
France arrests 15-year-old boy for allegedy planning 'imminent' Paris attack https://t.co/qduPy5N1IO via @BI_Defense— Pieter Van Ostaeyen (@p_vanostaeyen) September 11, 2016
A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in Paris suspected of preparing imminent "violent action", two judicial sources said, the second alleged plot with links to Islamic State discovered in France this week.
Last Sunday, a car loaded with gas cylinders was found near Notre Dame cathedral and jerry cans of diesel, leading to the discovery of a plot to attack a Paris railway station under the direction of Islamic State. Seven people, including four women, were arrested.
The boy had been under house arrest since France declared a state emergency after Nov. 13 attacks in Paris in which Islamic State militants killed 130 people, two sources said on condition of anonymity. They did not say why he was under house arrest.
His arrest on Saturday came as he was planning an attack in a public place in the French capital, one of the sources said.
The second source said the boy had been in contact with suspected French Islamist militant Rashid Kassim and that Kassim also guided one of the women arrested last week in the plot to attack a train station in Paris.
French newspaper Le Monde reported that Kassim is in Syria. He has used Telegram, the messaging service, to call for more attacks in France.
"Women, sisters, go on, attack. Where are the brothers?... She brandished a knife and she hit a policeman...Where are the men?" Le Monde quoted a message of Kassim on Telegram.
One of the women, arrested on Thursday stabbed a police officer during her arrest on Thursday before being shot and wounded.
One of the women, who was arrested with her partner on a motorway on Tuesday , Ornella G., was formally placed under investigation on Saturday in connection with the car found last Sunday near Notre Dame cathedral.
The man was freed on Saturday.
One of the sources said Kassim, 29, inspired two men who carried out an attack in July in a French church during which they slit the throat of the elderly priest.
The attack shocked France, coming less than 12 days after another Islamic State militant drove a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice.
