A French soldier patrols in front of the Notre-Dame cathedral | Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/ AFP via Getty Police discover gas cylinder-filled car in central Paris Vehicle belonged to a person under police surveillence for terrorist links.

French police discovered a vehicle packed with several gas cylinders near the Notre Dame Cathedral, local media reported Wednesday.

The suspicious car, that was discovered near the Paris landmark site on Saturday, belongs to someone who had been under police surveillance for terrorism links, according to Reuters. The owner of the car is now in police custody, the news agency said.

When police inspected the car, they found six cylinders – five of them were filled with gas. They were placed in the trunk and the empty one was on the front seat, French newspaper Le Figaro reported.

There was no registration plates on the car, a Peugeot, according to the newspaper that also reported police discovering the car on the left bank of the Seine.

"The car was not occupied, as though it had been abandoned," a source told Le Figaro.

Le Figaro reported several people were placed in police custody.

In May, the head of France's internal security agency, Patrick Calvar, had told a closed-door parliamentary hearing that he was convinced Islamic State operatives in France would at some point try to detonate "car bombs and explosive devices."

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