Dec 4 (Reuters) – France’s sports minister said on Monday that the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics would not be “planned” after a man armed with a knife and hammer killed a German tourist and left two others behind. He said there was no “B”. He was injured near the Eiffel Tower on Saturday.
“We don’t have a plan B. We have a plan that has several sub-plans with a certain number of adjustment variables,” Amélie Houdea-Castella told France Inter radio.
Counter-terrorism prosecutor Jean-François Ricard announced on Sunday that the 26-year-old French suspect arrested after the attack had pledged allegiance to Islamic State in a pre-recorded video.
The attack occurred on Rue Grenelle, which was also included in the plans for the opening ceremony.
Asked whether the government was considering changing plans to hold ceremonies on the Seine, with hundreds of thousands of spectators expected along the river amid security threats, the minister said: That’s not what we’re working on.”
“We have the ability to secure the event safely,” he said, adding specific details such as the number of additional cultural events surrounding the main spectacle, and that security perimeters would be adjusted closer to the Games. He said he was deaf.
France has been on high alert since October when a knife-wielding Chechen man killed a teacher at a school in northern France, raising security standards.
European security officials have warned that the risk of attacks by Islamic extremists is rising amid the Israel-Hamas war, with the biggest threat likely to come from “lone wolf” attackers who are difficult to track. There is.
Around 160 boats set out on July 26 on the 6km journey from Pont Austerlitz to Ponte Jena, in what organizing committee chairman Tony Estinguetto described as a “unique and spectacular” event. .
Reporting: Piotr Lipinski and Tassilo Hummel Editing: Bernadette Baum
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