Football tournament as a goal
France foils attack plan before Olympic Games
31.05.2024, 18:05
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Islamist-motivated attacks are a recurring problem in France. Security measures are being ramped up in the French capital ahead of the Olympics. An arrest has now been made in the south of the country – an 18-year-old was targeting the Olympic football tournament.
France has foiled plans for an Islamist terrorist attack on a football match during the Olympic Games this summer. An 18-year-old Chechen who wanted to carry out an Islamist-motivated attack was arrested in Saint-Étienne in southern France, the Interior Ministry in Paris said.
According to the investigations so far, the man was actively preparing for an attack during one of the Olympic football games in the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium in Saint-Étienne. His attack plan targeted spectators and law enforcement officers and he wanted to die as a martyr.
France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin thanked the terror investigators for their successful investigation. This was the first foiled attack plan during the Olympic Games and the 50th attack plan that the police had thwarted since 2017.
Islamist-motivated attacks keep occurring in France. Most recently, an attacker stabbed a German at the Eiffel Tower in Paris at the beginning of December. At the end of March, the highest of three alert levels was again declared in France. The authorities reacted to the attack on the Crocus City Hill concert hall in a suburb of Moscow, which left more than 140 people dead and which the jihadist militia Islamic State claimed responsibility for.
The Olympic Games will take place from July 26 to August 11 in Paris and several other French cities. The Paralympic Games are scheduled for August 28 to September 8. The major event is accompanied by concerns about security and fear of possible attacks in terror-stricken France. Tens of thousands of police officers are to secure the Olympic Games.