Paris Olympic Games 2024: French soldier stabbed in Paris days before Olympic Games

A French soldier guarding one of Paris’ biggest stations has been stabbed in a crazed attack days before the start of the Olympic Games. It comes as 130 people on terror watchlists applied to access Olympic venues.

A French soldier guarding Gare de l’Est, one of Paris’s main railway stations, has been stabbed by a crazed man shouting in French “God is great” less than two weeks before the capital hosts the Olympic Games.

The attacker, a 40 year old immigrant from the Democratic republic of Congo, stabbed the soldier between the shoulder blades just before 10pm local time on Monday evening at the railway station in the north of the capital.

Authorities will be reviewing how the attacker, Christian I, a known psychiatric patient, was roaming the streets.

In 2022 he had murdered a 22 year old man at Chatelet-les-Halles, stabbing him to death, and he has a known history of serious domestic violence. He was never tried for the killing because he was considered to have diminished responsibility.

“Thoughts to the soldier injured tonight at the Gare de l’Est,” Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu wrote on X.

Soldiers outside the Paris station following the attack. Picture: X/@CNEWS

The soldier was on patrol at the station as part of Operation Sentinel, the military operation in Paris following the 2015 Islamist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and is now part of the 18,000 military helping protect the Olympics. The soldier is in a serious condition in hospital.

The stabbing comes as thousands of known criminals, including Islamist radicals and suspects with close links to Islamist and extremist political positions have been denied access within the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.

French interior minister Gerald Darmanin confirmed that more than three thousand people had been refused accreditations for the Games including more than 100 of those deemed to be the highest threat to national security.

Accredited personnel are able to access the internal areas of the Olympic Games precinct and as well as officials, athletes and media, the accreditations include Games workforce such as volunteers, hospitality staff, drivers, venue security, and technicians.

Nearly a million people are involved in the Games in some capacity and have been subject to French police security checks. With less than two weeks until the July 26 opening ceremony Mr Darmanin said 3512 people had been refused accreditation because they could pose a threat to the security of the event.

He said 130 of those were rejected on state security grounds having been on the French government’s Fiche S, which is a watchlist of terror suspects.

Officers of the French National Police patrol in front of the Eiffel Tower. Picture: AFP

Dozens of people with ties to radical Islamists, or the ultra-Left and ultra-Right, were also turned down, Mr Darmanin said.

France has been on the highest terror alert since March 22 following the terrorist attack in Moscow.

Up to 45,000 French police military will be deployed to protect the Olympic Games, in addition to 22,000 private contractors working on venue security. This has been bolstered by nearly 2000 security specialists from 40 allied nations arriving in the French capital this week.

“A large number of them will be deployed in train stations, airports and around the thirty-nine Olympic and sports venues ,” the French Interior Ministry said.

Police officers, military personnel, rescue workers and firefighters take part in an exercise simulating a terrorist attackahead of the Games. Picture: AFP

Ministry officials said the foreign nations are assisting in critical areas such as dog-handling teams to detect explosives, bomb-deactivation experts and other counter-terrorism operations.

Poland, Spain and Germany have confirmed the deployment of their teams to France as part of the international security coalition.

Three months ago the French prime minister Gabriel Attal warned: ”the terrorist threat is real, it’s strong” and revealed two plots by suspected Islamic extremists had been thwarted earlier in the year. Threats are also heightened because of the uncertain domestic political situation and the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Australia’s Smart Traveller advises to exercise a high degree of caution in France due to the threat of terrorism.

Some sections of central Paris have already been closed in preparation for the Games, while the activation of three rings of tighter security measures are ready to be activated from next week.

At this stage officials have insisted that the opening ceremony will take place on the Seine, although the most immediate worries are not about civil unrest or terrorism for the 360,000 spectators, but the speed of the river’s flow.

The river is currently high and flowing at a fast 500 cubic meters per second, a result of heavy rain several weeks ago and a handful of the taller ships carrying large delegations, including Australia’s team of 460, may not fit under the bridges between Austerlitz and Iéna at the Eiffel Tower.

Officials are looking at hiring more smaller boats and readjusting the timing as the boats would move faster downstream. Already planned rehearsals for the ceremony have had to be cancelled because the river has been flowing over 670 cubic m/s, four to five times the normal summer conditions.

While the water speed poses issues for the boat’s maneuverability, it also impacts on the co-ordination of the river parade with the show on the quays, ” Thierry Reboul, Paris 2024’s director of ceremonies, told Agence France-Presse. He is hoping the calmer weather forecast will keep the flow rate below 500 cubic m/s.

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Originally published as Paris Olympic Games 2024: French soldier stabbed in Paris days before Olympic Games