The chief prosecutor in Paris has said that a group of three women who were arrested following the discovery of a car loaded with gas cylinders in the center of the capital were receiving instructions from the Islamic State group. Francois Molins also reviewed that one ofthe women had links to Jihadists who carried out terror attacks in France early this year. Here is our Paris correspondent Lucy Williamson.

Mr. Molins described a new kind of threat against France, formed entirely of women and controlled directly from Syria. IS, he said, now wants to make women into fighters.

Ladies and gentlemen, in these last few days and hours, the terrorist cell made up of young women totally under the deadly influence of dash has been dismantled. The execution of their project was being directed remotely by individuals in Syria in the ranks of the terrorist organization. If at first it seemed that women were confined to carrying out family and domestic tasks by the terrorist organization, we are now forced to see that that vision is largely outdated.

The three women were arrested overnight as they left a flat 20 miles south of Paris. During the arrests, one of them, a 19-year old, stabbed an officer with a large kitchen knife and was shot by his colleagues in the legs. She was also found to be carrying a pledge to terrorize France in the name of so-called Islamic State. Investigators say one of her associates had previously been engaged to two men both of whom had carried out Jihadist inspired killings in France this year. The women and their associates had already been under surveillance according France interior minister. The three women, he said, were believed to be planning other imminent and violent attacks.

Lucy Williamson there.

New research has reviewed that a significant proportion of the world’s wilderness has vanished in the past two decades. The World Conservation Society study is published in the latest edition of the journey Current Biology. Our reporter Helen has been looking at its findings. First, what do we mean by the term “lderness”?

I mean, we all have this idea of wilderness in our heads, mountains and untouched landscapes. And here they are talking very much about intact, pristine landscapes, so ecologically intact, mostly free of human disturbances. So you may have some indigenous people living there, but you don’t have homes. You don’t have roads. You don’t have lights at night. You don’t have farming.

So it’s said to be disappearing. And which parts of the world are most infected?