Paris: Police probing suspicious car near Notre Dame

PARIS (AA) - French anti-terrorism police have launched an investigation after a car full of six gas cylinders was found in Paris, near Notre Dame Cathedral, over the weekend, French daily Le Figaro reported Wednesday.

The car – with registration plates missing and its hazard lights flashing – was parked at Quai de Montebello, in the capital’s fifth arrondissement, just a few meters from the iconic cathedral on Paris' Ile de la cite by the River Seine, said the paper.

The abandoned vehicle, a Peugeot 607, contained at least six gas cylinders, one of them empty and placed on the front passenger seat.

“The cylinders were not connected to any kind of detonator,” the newspaper quoted unnamed police officials as saying.

It added that the car owner is known to the French intelligence service and several people were in custody on Wednesday morning.

When contacted by Anadolu Agency, the French police had no comment.

France is on high alert after a series of terrorist attacks that targeted its territories since January last year, killing hundreds of people, as well as a state of emergency since last November, and extended this July.