Teenager arrested for terror plot at Paris Olympics

A teenager who wanted “to die and become a martyr” has been arrested on suspicion of planning a terror attack on this summer’s Olympic Games in France, officials said on Friday.

In what the French Government says is the first foiled terror plan against the Paris Olympics, the General Directorate of Internal Security have arrested an 18-year-old Chechan national.

The suspect was said to be targeting the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium in St Etienne, which will hold football matches at the Olympics, and was arrested at his home and placed in pre-trial detention.

Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, said that he wanted to “congratulate the intelligence services which once again demonstrate their full mobilisation and their effectiveness in the fight against terrorism and the protection of our country”.

He also said that it was “the first foiled attack against the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the 50th attack foiled by our intelligence services since 2017”.

The suspect wanted to attack the Olympic events “to die and become a martyr,” Darmanin’s statement added.

According to BFMTV, the man denied conducting any reconnaissance or planning an attack while in police custody. He simply acknowledged “exchanges” and “conversations” on encrypted messaging applications.

During a search carried out by the police, investigators found a photo of Saint-Étienne stadium on a computer. According to police sources, videos of the stadium were also found in his phone.

According to BFMTV, the suspect was unknown to the police and judicial authorities prior to his arrest and had arrived in France with his parents in 2023.

The suspect was arrested at his home and had already been scouting locations, according to a source close to the investigation. France’s anti-terror prosecutor’s office, PNAT, said he was indicted on May 26 on charges of associating with a terrorist criminal group with a view to preparing crimes against a person. He was subsequently remanded in custody. Investigations are now continuing as part of a judicial inquiry.

Among the matches due to be held at the stadium in Saint Etienne are France against Canada and the United States versus Guinea. Morocco will also take on both Argentina and Ukraine in Saint Etienne, with Canada playing New Zealand and Germany facing Zambia.

News of the arrest follows an admission last month for the first time that the ambitious Olympic opening ceremony, which is due to take place in just eight weeks, could be moved away from the River Seine in Paris over security fears.

More than 10,000 athletes are expected to sail along a 6km stretch of the Seine on 160 barges in front of a crowd of some 300,000 people. It would be the first Olympic opening ceremony to be staged outside of a stadium but France president Emmanuel Macron revealed that there were “plan Bs and plan Cs”. These include limiting the event to the Trocadero, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower, or reverting to a more traditional ceremony inside the Stade de France.

The current plans will see 45,000 police and security in Paris for the opening ceremony - 10 times more than usual daily numbers in the French capital - with admission inside what will be a secure ‘zone’ along the Seine now by invitation rather than open access.

“If we have a risk and elicitation doubt we will not do it,” said Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet. “So far we continue. There is a good level of confidence with the security measures in place. We started this project at the beginning of 2016 just after the massive attacks we had in France. At that time, the authorities decided to defend what is important in France. Paris and the public authorities have put in place unprecedented security. The security is the priority and then, after the security is secured, we work on the artistic.”