The Olympic and Paralympic Games were the targets of three planned terror attacks — among them a plot specifically intended to harm visiting members of the Israeli community — but all three were ultimately thwarted by French authorities before any violence could take place.
So far, five people, including a minor, have been arrested in connection with the foiled plots, France’s national counterterrorism prosecutor said Wednesday. The suspects each face various terrorism-related charges, officials confirmed.
While few specifics have been provided about the planned attacks, prosecutor Olivier Christen confirmed one of them was specifically aimed at “Israeli institutions or representatives of Israel in Paris” for the 2024 Olympic Games, which ran from July 26 through Aug. 11.
He added “the Israeli team itself was not specifically targeted,” but he did not elaborate further, according to broadcaster France Info.
Authorities in the country were on high alert in the months leading up to and during the Olympics, which unfolded amid the contentious Israel-Hamas war as well as Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
Christen told France Info that while the additional security was difficult to coordinate, the “challenge was met thanks to a very heavy investment, for several months, by all the services working on this subject.”
Some 30,000 police and gendarmes were deployed, with their presence bolstered by roughly 20,000 soldiers and between 17,000 and 22,000 private security, the organizing committee said ahead of the global gathering.
Other preventive measures included increased house searches and house arrests before the start of the Olympics, the prosecutor said, adding that law enforcement and security personnel have conducted 936 house searches so far in 2024, compared to 153 last year.
France also strengthened its airspace defenses, relying on war planes, attack helicopters, surveillance aircraft, military and police drones to surveil the skies over Paris and the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, which hosted sailing and soccer events.
Ahead of the Games, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin repeatedly warned of potential security threats, including those from Islamic extremist groups, violent environmental activists, far-right groups and cyberattacks from Russia.
News of the foiled terror attacks come months after an 18-year-old man from Chechnya was arrested in May over an alleged plot to attack Olympic soccer events, held in the southern city of Saint-Etienne.
He was accused of planning “a violent action” on behalf of the Islamic State’s jihadi ideology, which involved targeting “bar-type establishments around the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium,” the prosecutor said.
With News Wire Services