Anti-terror probe opened into car found packed with gas cylinders in Paris

Anti-terror investigators in France have launched a probe into an incident in which a car was left parked outside the famed Notre Dame cathedral with gas cylinders inside.

The car’s owner and another person, who are both known to security services, were arrested on Tuesday.

France remains on high alert for terror attacks. In November last year, suicide bombers and gunmen killed 130 people in Paris in coordinated attacks claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

A bar employee working near the cathedral raised the alert on Sunday after noticing a gas cylinder on the back seat of the car, which had no number plates, a police source said.

That cylinder was found to be empty, but five full cylinders were found in the boot of the car.

No detonators were found, police say.

Photographs of the metallic silver-colored car after it was discovered showed its boot open and the gas canisters placed on the ground in a quiet side street opposite the cathedral.

A notebook containing writing in Arabic was also found in the car, according to the mayor of the district of Paris where the vehicle was found.

— AFP