France thwarts ‘Islamist’ attack against the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

(AFP / VOZ MEDIA) French authorities announced Friday that they thwarted a planned attack against the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and that they arrested a young Chechen man allegedly involved in an "Islamist-inspired" attack.

The Ministry of the Interior highlighted in a statement that this is the "first stopped attack against the Olympic Games," scheduled for July 26 to Aug. 11.

The young man, aged 18, was arrested on May 22 in Saint-Étienne, in the southeast of the country. On Sunday, the court decreed preventive detention against him for planning "in the name of the jihadist ideology of [the organization] Islamic State … violent actions, in particular against concentrations of fans," according to the anti-terrorist prosecutor's office PNAT.

The suspect, arrested by the DGSI internal intelligence services, "was actively preparing an attack against the Geoffroy Guichard stadium" in Saint-Étienne, which is due to host soccer games during the Olympic event, the Interior Ministry said.

The suspect "wanted to attack spectators and law enforcement and die as a martyr," indicates the Ministry of the Interior.

France is at maximum alert level ahead of the Olympic Games, when around 10 million visitors and 10,000 athletes are expected. Since the beginning of the year, three attacks have been thwarted.

Since 2018, several cases of terrorism in France involved jihadists from the Russian republics of the North Caucasus, especially Chechnya.

These cases include three attacks: a knife attack near the Paris Opera in 2018 and the murders of professor Samuel Paty in 2020 in the Paris region and of Dominique Bernard on Oct. 13, in Arras, in northern France.

French police ‘in full mobilization’ two months before the Olympic Games

Unlike the most recent plot, organized by a Russian known for radical beliefs, the Chechen arrested last week was not registered by intelligence services, according to a police source.

The Arras attack shocked France and caused Interior Minister Gérard Darmanin to toughen his immigration reform plans, adopted at the beginning of the year, and to advocate a "specialized approach" for young people from the Caucasus.

On Friday, the minister congratulated intelligence services for "their full mobilization and effectiveness in the fight against terrorism," less than two months before the start of the Olympic Games, which will require special security protection.

The competitions will take place mainly in Paris and the Paris region, but other cities in France will also host some events.

The Olympic Games have been the scene of attacks in the past, such as in Munich 1972 or Atlanta 1996, when all the world's attention is focused on the Olympic events.