Five women have gone on trial in Paris over an attempt to set off a car bomb near Notre Dame Cathedral, in a case that aims to shed light on the role of female French jihadists in homegrown terrorism.

On the night of 3 September 2016, Ines Madani and Ornella Gilligmann parked a grey Peugeot 607 with no number plate on a narrow street in front of busy restaurants near the cathedral in central Paris. The car was loaded with six gas canisters. Fuel was poured over the car and a lit cigarette thrown at it.

But they had chosen diesel fuel, much less flammable than standard petrol and, despite several attempts, the car did not catch fire. If it had done it would have caused a devastating firebomb. “Only a poor choice of [fuel] meant their attempt failed,” investigative judges said. They said if the women had succeeded, there would have been “carnage”.

Madani, who was 19 at the time, used her father’s car for the attempted attack. She has previously been described in court by her lawyers as “a girl in search of recognition and love”. A previous trial over her terrorist activity showed she was in contact with key Islamic State figures in Syria and served as a kind of mentor figure in the recruitment of other women into terrorism in France.

She used male pseudonyms of Isis fighters on social networks, posing as men while chatting to other women to encourage them to join the group. By phone, she modified her voice to pass as male when courting other women romantically to join the movement online.

“She’s obviously intimidated,” said Madani’s defence lawyer, Laurent Pasquet-Marinacce, as the trial began on Monday. He said it was “very daunting” to be in court “but she is quite confident because she believes in the possibility of a fair and not excessive trial”.

He rejected allegations Madani orchestrated the plot, which he described as “collective”. He said: “The real people in charge are the men in Syria who were pulling the strings.”

The lawyer said Madani acknowledged responsibility for preparing the attempted Note Dame attack. He said she was manipulated by Isis members in Syria and was “no longer radicalised at all”.

The case aims to show how young women have played a key role in homegrown terrorism.

The former state prosecutor François Molins has previously described a terrorist cell “made up of young women totally receptive to the deadly ideology of Daesh [Isis]”. He said the cell showed Isis intended to make women into fighters.

When the car bomb failed to ignite outside Notre Dame, the women fled, the court heard. Gilligmann was arrested in the south of France. Madani, following the advice of her Isis handler, went to Boussy-Saint-Antoine, a small town south-east of Paris, where she joined other women, including a 23-year-old cleaner in a psychiatric clinic who had become radicalised.

Fearing they were being watched by police, the women fled the flat armed with a kitchen knife. One of the women had left a note written in lipstick on a mirror saying: “Mummy loves you.” One woman attempted to stab a plainclothes officer and Madani was injured in the legs by police officers firing as she fled.

A sixth young woman is on trial for failing to denounce the planned attack.

Rachid Kassim, an Isis fighter said in court documents to have coordinated the failed Notre Dame attack as well as other attacks in France from his base in Syria, is also on trial in absentia. He is believed to have been killed in Iraq, but without proof of his death he will be tried.

The trial, in a special court made up of professional magistrates without a jury, will run until 11 October.