BERLIN — Three Syrians who entered Germany as migrants have been arrested on suspicion of belonging to the Islamic State and may have had links to those who carried out Paris terrorist attacks last year, authorities said Tuesday.

Thomas de Maizière, the German interior minister, said that the travel documents the men were carrying when they were arrested Tuesday had been issued by the same authority as ones found on some of the men who carried out the attacks in and around Paris in November. Authorities also said that the three Syrians appeared to have used the same smugglers to enter Germany and to apply for asylum as some of those involved in the terrorist assaults in France.

“It could be that this was a sleeper cell,’’ de Maizière told reporters.

Prosecutors said in a statement that they believed the three came to Germany in November to carry out a planned attack for the group, also known as ISIL or ISIS, or to await instructions for one.

German security authorities have been on high alert since two young men who entered the country as migrants, and who had received benefits funded by German taxpayers, carried out separate attacks in Bavaria in July, wounding dozens. Both attacks appeared linked to or inspired by the Islamic State, authorities said.

New York Times