French security services have arrested a Chechen teenager suspected of plotting an "Islamist-inspired" attack on a football game during the Paris Olympic Games in July and August, the Interior Ministry said on Friday, May 31.
The DGSI domestic intelligence agency "arrested an 18-year-old of Chechen origin in Saint-Etienne" in southeast France on May 22, the ministry said, calling it the "first foiled attack against the Olympic Games."
France is on its highest alert level for attacks ahead of the Paris Games, when around 10 million visitors and 10,000 athletes are expected. The sport is set to take place mostly in the capital, but other towns and cities around France will also host some disciplines as well as individual games.
The arrested Chechen was suspected of "actively preparing an attack against the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium [in Saint-Etienne] during the football games that will take place there," the Interior Ministry said. "He intended to attack spectators but also security forces and die as a martyr," the statement added. He was charged on Sunday with terrorist conspiracy and is in pre-trial detention, the national anti-terror prosecutor's office said in a statement to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"We applaud the efficiency of the [law enforcement] services and their exceptional mobilization to ensure the security of the Games," the Paris organizing committee said in a statement. "Security is the number one priority for Paris 2024."
Six football games are set to take place in Saint-Etienne, an industrial town of roughly 200,000 people about an hour's drive west of Lyon. They begin on July 24 with Argentina versus Morocco in the men's competition and include a game between the French women's team and Canada on July 28.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, quoted in the press release, congratulated the intelligence services, who were "once again demonstrating their full mobilization and effectiveness in the fight against terrorism" in the run-up to the Olympic Games, which will be the focus of a major security operation.
Concerns about the Paris Games have focused on the opening ceremony on July 26 that will take place over a 6-kilometer stretch of the Seine, the first time a summer Olympics has begun outside the athletics stadium. Policing such a vast area of the capital will be a huge challenge, with 45,000 officers set to be on duty and large swathes of the center out of bounds for everyone except ticket holders and local residents.
Several attacks in recent years in France have been perpetrated by radicalized young people from the North Caucasus. In October 2020, another teenage Chechen extremist, who had come to France as a refugee, beheaded a teacher in a suburb northwest of Paris. And last October, a 20-year-old Chechen who had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State killed a teacher in the northern town of Arras. After the Arras attack, Darmanin called for a "specialized approach for young men from the Caucasus in the 16-25 age bracket."