A man armed with a knife and hammer killed a German tourist and left two people wounded near the Eiffel Tower on Saturday, raising security concerns ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games. French sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera insisted on Monday that there is no “plan B” for the opening ceremony, which will be held on the iconic River Seine. But she said that the plans for the Olympics will be constantly adapted to consider geopolitical developments and the ever-present risk of terrorist attacks.
Amid the upheaval in France and across Europe, government departments will meet on Olympic security this Friday. The current situation in the Middle East will likely play a significant role.
Oudea-Castera said the original plan for the ceremony would remain the same, but the number of auxiliary cultural events planned would be fine-tuned closer to the Games. Around 35,000 police and gendarmes will be mobilized to provide security for the entire Olympic fortnight, and the opening ceremony is expected to attract some 500,000 spectators.
The suspect in the attack, identified as Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, was a French citizen who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a video posted online, according to anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard. He was tasered by police after the stabbing and then arrested by security forces.
He has since been charged with murder, terrorism, and weapons possession and faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. The attack is not believed to have been motivated by antisemitism, but the victim’s family has asked that authorities probe whether it was a premeditated hate crime.
In the wake of the incident, the French deputy mayor for sport, Pierre Rabadan, reassured the public that there would be “no safer place in the world than Paris during the Games.” He said he was confident that the city could guarantee safety and added that the attack would not derail the planning process. He said that the government had raised its threat level in October and added that the most significant danger was from lone attackers.
