French Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin has asked intelligence agencies to assess the terrorist threat to the country after the Islamic State-claimed attack on a concert hall in Moscow raised new security concerns over the Paris Olympics. I met with
One of the biggest security challenges facing tournament organizers in the French capital is protecting the July 26 opening ceremony. It will be an unprecedented outdoor extravaganza, and for the first time in Olympic history, the event will not take place inside the stadium grounds, but rather a flotilla of 94 boats carrying thousands of waving athletes. It is said to descend 6 kilometers (approximately 3.7 km). Eighty boats carrying media and security personnel followed along the Seine, with an estimated 222,000 people gathered on the banks and another 200,000 watching from buildings.
More than 45,000 police will be mobilized, with snipers on rooftops and elite officers on boats. Airspace within a 150km radius around Paris will be closed during the ceremony as security authorities prepare for the potential threat of drone attacks.
Mr Darmanin promised that French police and intelligence services were preparing for an unusual security operation, saying it was clear that the Olympics would be a target for future attacks, but that a large-scale security and intelligence operation would require significant effort. He said that resources have been allocated.
“France is particularly threatened because it defends universal values and supports secularism, especially during extraordinary events such as the Olympics,” Darmanin said this week. told reporters after questions arose about the potential threat. “French police, gendarmes, governors and intelligence services will be ready,” he added, adding: “We have a very effective intelligence system.” We stop developing the plot almost every month. ”
A poll this week by Ellerbe for BFMTV found that 80% of French citizens are concerned about terrorism, but 59% are optimistic that France will succeed in ensuring the safety of the Olympics. A total of 57% of French people think the Olympic opening ceremony should be held outdoors.
According to the Interior Ministry, French intelligence services are testing up to one million people ahead of the Games, including athletes, staff, volunteers and people living near key infrastructure.
Paris raised the terrorist threat level to maximum after the March 22 attacks in Moscow that killed at least 140 people. The country has been a frequent target of jihadist attacks in the past, including coordinated attacks by Islamic State on the Bataclan concert hall and restaurants in Paris. The stadium was completed in November 2015.
President Emmanuel Macron said this week that the Islamic State group believed to be behind the Moscow attack, known as Khorasan, which is based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, was also trying to attack France. “This particular group has made several attempts [at attacks] On our own land,” the president told reporters. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said two attacks planned in France since the start of the year have been thwarted.
Darmanin told a Senate committee earlier this month that the types of risks to be assessed during the Olympics include the possibility of action by a lone actor in France, or groups outside France paying criminals in the country. He said that this includes the possibility of carrying out an attack. He said there was no specific threat from foreign groups, adding: “What we can say today is that groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have the intention to attack Western countries and France in particular, but they do not currently have the means to do so. No,” he said. ” But intelligence is not an “exact science,” he added.
France's domestic intelligence chief, Céline Berton, told the same Senate committee that the risk of terrorism had increased over the past year. She said: “This is the return of the threat of Islamist terrorism linked to the external arena. In a tense geopolitical situation with terrorist organizations targeting the West, we must not overlook this threat. “We will definitely seize that opportunity as the case approaches.” The game is.
There is also the potential for cyberattacks to take place during the Games, with hackers targeting stopwatch clocks for timed events, or broader computer systems or transportation infrastructure.
The head of France's National Cybersecurity Agency said in an interview with Agence France-Presse this week that the Paris Olympics would be a “target”, including foreign countries interested in “disrupting the opening ceremony and causing problems for public transport”.
The warning by Vincent Strubel, head of the French Cyber Security Agency (ANSSI), comes amid tensions in diplomatic relations between France and Russia over the Ukraine war.
“Obviously the Olympics will be a target,” Strubel told AFP. “We're preparing for all kinds of attacks, all the attacks that we see on a daily basis, but they're big, there's a lot of them. The frequency is also higher,” he added.
These included “attacks from countries that may try to disrupt the Games for any reason, disrupt the opening ceremony or cause problems with public transport,” he said. said.
