Islamist terrorism is ‘main concern’ for upcoming Olympics, says Paris police chief
Despite ‘no clear-cut threat,’ Laurent Nunez says terror risk no less important than far left, environmentalist and pro-Palestinian protests; notes May arrest of would-be saboteurs
PARIS, France — Islamist terrorism is the main security worry ahead of the upcoming Paris Olympics, the French capital’s chief of police Laurent Nunez said on Friday.
France is on its highest security alert level as the Games approach. The country is also preparing for snap legislative elections at the end of June.
French authorities also recently foiled an attack on a sports stadium in another French city.
“Islamist terrorism remains our main concern,” Nunez told a press conference seven weeks before the Olympics opening ceremony, which will be held on and along the River Seine on July 26.
“There is no clear-cut threat yet against the Games and our country but I’d like to remind you that at the end of May, two individuals were arrested in Saint-Etienne and were plotting a project aimed directly at the Olympic Games.
“The terrorist threat remains just as important as the protest threat posed by radical environmental groups, the ultra-left, and the pro-Palestinian movement,” Nunez said.
In May, an 18-year-old Chechen man was arrested in the city of Saint-Etienne, suspected of planning an attack in the name of Islamic State at the city’s soccer stadium during the Olympics.
