Suspect shot after Paris terror test run was ‘planning to attack rail station’

A teenage terror suspect was gunned down as she was arrested by French police investigating a car found packed with gas cylinders near Notre Dame cathedral. The 19-year-old, named as Ines Madani, was hit in the leg moments after she stabbed a police officer in the shoulder. Two other women, aged 39 and 23, were also held in the anti-terror operation. Later, it emerged the teenager had written a letter pledging her allegiance to Islamic State and threatening an attack on Paris’s Gare de Lyon station. Shouts of 'Allahu Akbar’ were heard on video footage of the women’s arrests.

An alert has been issued to all stations but they had planned to attack the Gare de Lyon on Thursday

French interior ministry

The arrests were linked to the discovery of the abandoned Peugeot 607 near the Paris Cathedral earlier this week. It contained six gas cylinders and three cans of diesel as it was left with its hazard lights on in what police say was a terror attack test run for an attack on the nearby Gare de Lyon. Madani, detained in Boussy-Saint-Antoine on the outskirts of Paris, was said to be one of the daughters of the owner of the vehicle. Her boyfriend was also arrested overnight bringing to five the total detained over the alleged plot. French president Francois Hollande said: “A group has been destroyed, but there are others. An attack has been foiled.”

They had been radicalised, were fanatics and were in all likelihood preparing an imminent, violent act

French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve

Paris terror