France foils two Olympic terror attack plots, government says

France has thwarted two separate terror attack plots targeting the Olympics, the government said.

Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, said that police carried out “several arrests” in two separate cases.

“In recent days, we have not made it public because we are in an election campaign, but we have arrested people who may have planned and put terrorist attacks into place,” Mr Darmanin said in an interview with French news channel BFM TV on Friday morning.

“They are being handed over to the justice services at this very moment”, he added.

The terrorist threat in France remains “extremely high”, the interior minister continued, in the lead-up to Bastille Day celebrations on July 14 and the Olympic games which open on July 26.

France has been under its highest terror alert since March, after the terrorist attack, claimed by Islamic State, which killed 145 people at a Russian concert hall.

Following that attack, Mr Darmanin announced: “In view of the Islamic State’s claim to responsibility for the attack and the threats facing our country, we have decided to raise the Vigipirate posture to its highest level: urgence attentat.”

Along with the security challenges of the Olympics and opening ceremony, which will be held outdoors on the River Seine, snap parliamentary elections have drawn fears of civil unrest and mass protests. On Sunday, the French people will cast their final votes in a chaotic election that is projected to give the hard-Right National Rally party big gains in the lower assembly.

The Paris prefecture has already announced a ban on a planned antifa demonstration on Sunday.

A collective called “Paris-Banlieue antifascist action” had called on their 40,000 followers on X, formerly Twitter, to gather outside the National Assembly, “whatever the outcome”.

Around 30,000 police officers will be deployed across the country Sunday, 5,000 of whom will be stationed around Paris.