French authorities: Plan to attack football events during the Olympic Games in Paris foiled

A plan to combat football incidents during the Olympic Games in Paris was thwarted by security authorities in France, officials said.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in a statement that an 18-year-old man from Chechnya was arrested on May 22. He is accused of being behind a plan to carry out attacks at football events in the southeastern city of Saint-Etienne, about 420 kilometers south of Paris.

According to initial investigations, the man was preparing an attack on the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium in the city of Saint-Etienne, where several football matches will be played during the Summer Olympics.

The planned attack was directed against spectators and police forces, the statement said. The suspect wanted to attack the Olympic events “in order to die and become a martyr,” the statement continued.

The Olympic Games in Paris will take place from July 26 to August 11. Before the final at the Stade de France in Paris, football matches will take place in various cities in France.

In France, the highest level of alert for attacks is in place ahead of the games, as ten million visitors and around 10,000 athletes are expected to arrive in the country.

Many concerns focus on the opening ceremony on July 26, which will take place on a 6.5-kilometer stretch of the Seine. It will be the first time that the Summer Olympics will begin outside an athletics stadium.

In April, French President Emmanuel Macron said the opening ceremony could be moved to the country’s national stadium instead if the security risk was deemed too high.

Macron said French security forces would be mobilized to an extraordinary extent to ensure the safety of the open-air event. “However, if we believe there are risks, we have fallback scenarios, depending on our analysis of the context.”

Organizers had originally planned a grand opening ceremony for up to 600,000 people, most of whom could watch for free from the riverbank. But security and logistical concerns led the government to gradually scale back its ambitions. Earlier this year, the total number of spectators was reduced to around 300,000.

The French government has also decided that tourists will not be allowed free access to the opening ceremony for security reasons. Instead, free access will be by invitation only.