“France, because it defends universal values and is in favor of secularism (…), is particularly at risk, especially during extraordinary events such as the Olympic Games,” The Guardian quoted the minister as saying.
The interior ministry also said French intelligence agencies are screening up to a million people ahead of the games, including athletes, staff, volunteers and people living near key infrastructure.
France has already raised its terror threat level to maximum after news of the massacre in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, rocked the world last week. French President Emmanuel Macron said this week that Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attack, had already carried out several attempted attacks on French soil. According to Prime Minister Gabriel Attali, two planned attacks have been prevented in France since the beginning of the year.
Russian police are making arrests across the country for comments about the attack. Not even a nine-year-old girl escaped
Foreign
Minister Darmanin also said in March that the risk of a lone attacker inside France or a group outside France paying criminals inside the country to carry out an attack was also assessed. However, according to him, there was no specific threat from a foreign group. “Today we can say that groups like al-Qaeda or the Islamic State intend to attack the West and especially France, but at the moment they do not have the means,” he said.
France already asked about 45 countries in January to contribute several thousand soldiers, police and civilian personnel to help secure the Olympics. French government sources reported this information on Friday, Reuters writes.
The opening ceremony will take place on July 26 in Paris on the River Seine. Thousands of athletes will arrive on the site in a fleet of 94 boats, another 80 boats are reserved for the media and security forces. Over two hundred thousand spectators will watch the ceremony on the banks of the river, and roughly the same number of people will observe the event from the surrounding buildings.
Originally, up to twice as many spectators were supposed to be present, but the organizers have recently significantly reduced their maximum number. This is an unprecedented situation, it will be the first time in the history of the Olympic Games that the opening ceremony will not take place within the stadium, but in an open area, reminds the Guardian.
Security at the ceremony is to be provided by over 45,000 police officers and snipers, including crews in the aforementioned boats. Airspace within a radius of 150 kilometers around Paris will also be closed due to a potential drone attack. But there is also the potential for cyber-attacks during the Olympics, whether by hackers targeting stopwatches at timed events or targeting wider computer systems or transport infrastructure.
The Islamic State is 95 percent behind the attack near Moscow. But doubts remain
Europe
