PARIS: French police have released three women arrested along with nine others Friday in an anti-terror sweep connected to the attacks in Paris by extremists that killed 17 people and put Europe on high alert.

Paris prosecutor spokesman Denis Fauriat said the other nine suspects will have their interrogations prolonged by 48 hours, a step allowed under France’s tough anti-terror laws.

Police in France, Germany and Belgium have arrested dozens of suspects in recent days as part of the anti-terror sweep sparked by last week’s bloody spree in and around Paris, in which brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi and their friend Amedy Coulibaly killed 17 people at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a kosher grocery, and elsewhere.

Fallout from the attacks has spread around the world. Demonstrations in support of the murdered Charlie Hebdo journalists have been held in countries from the United States to Brazil, and violent protests against the magazine’s depictions of caricatures have taken place in Niger, Pakistan and Algeria.