Protests, sabotage and terrorism: Inside the effort to make Paris safe

First came an explosion, then a commotion as firefighters rushed into a roadside hotel near France’s largest international airport. It was a balmy June afternoon and the country was preparing to welcome a host of foreign heads of state for one of the biggest military commemorations in recent years – the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

Inside the hotel room, authorities allegedly discovered a raft of fake travel documents and traces of chemicals used to manufacture a Mother of Satan bomb – an extremely sensitive homemade explosive used by suicide bombers.

The bomb, made using a volatile cocktail of chemicals and batteries wrapped in plastic, had detonated prematurely, seriously injuring its handler, a former soldier from the embattled Donbas region whom French authorities believe had been fighting with the Russian army in Ukraine.

According to French media reports, the man was planning to detonate the explosive at a hardware and home improvement store north of Paris in the early hours of the morning as part of a co-ordinated sabotage campaign designed to sow chaos across different European countries.

An artists’ impression of the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony.Credit: Paris 2024 / Florian Hulleu

The incident is among multiple suspected terror plots foiled by authorities in France since the start of the year, fanning fears terrorists and saboteurs are seeking to weaponise the Olympics in Paris to inflict the most damage. Just this week, a French soldier patrolling the city ahead of the event was stabbed outside the Gare de l’Est train station. The attacker was detained by police, but the motivation behind the stabbing remains unclear.

France is contending with what security experts have described as the most volatile geopolitical environment to envelop the Olympics since the 1930s. The country has been on maximum security alert since a deadly, Islamic State-sponsored terror attack at a Moscow concert hall in March as authorities grapple with the potential for devastation on multiple fronts.

Among the worries keeping the government up at night are the looming threats of a nuclear conflict with Russia, potential sabotage campaigns by foreign agents, the war in the Middle East, widespread protests, terrorism plots by radicalised youth, and the possibility of millions of cyberattacks crippling critical infrastructure on the opening night of the Games.

And all amid plans to hold one of the most ambitious opening ceremonies in Olympic history – an open-air floating parade down the Seine from the Austerlitz bridge to the Trocadero in front of some 100,000 spectators perched on river banks, bridges, balconies, and stands.

The plan, the counter-terrorism and security experts say, is a logistical nightmare.

The terror Games

Counter-terrorism expert Thomas Renard doesn’t beat about the bush. The possibility of a terror attack during the Olympics is very real, and several jihadist groups have already signalled they will seek to target the major event.

Among those is the Afghanistan-based group Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), which has emerged as the “cool new brand for jihadi fanboys”. The group has grown in popularity among radicalised people since the collapse of its homologous outfit in Iraq and Syria and the rise of the Taliban in 2021, which has offered ISKP a safe haven in Central Asia.

Since the Moscow attack in March, the Islamic State has used its expansive media and propaganda networks to name major sporting events as a target and call for its followers to “recreate the glory” of the 2015 Paris terror attacks that killed 130 people and injured 350 others during these Olympics. The group has also exploited public discontent and anger about the war in Gaza to spread its support base abroad and radicalise a new generation.

Researchers at Renard’s International Centre for Counter-Terrorism have found indications ISKP could be using asylum-seeker routes through Ukraine to send foot soldiers into Europe. They believe the group could also have already groomed a team of followers on the ground that can be instructed – or “remotely piloted” – to carry out attacks by more senior members abroad.

“We aren’t maybe exactly in the same situation we were in Europe around 2014 and 2015 when the threat had never been higher, but we are getting near that,” Renard said.

At least five people suspected of plotting terror attacks have been arrested since the start of the year. This includes an 18-year-old Chechen man who was planning an Islamic State-inspired attack at the soccer stadium in the city of Saint-Etienne, near Lyon, and a 16-year-old from Haute-Savoie, in eastern France, who had pledged alliance to the terrorist outfit and intended to die a martyr during the Games by detonating an explosive belt in La Defense.

Posters distributed by the propaganda networks of jihadi groups threatening violence at major sporting events, including the Olympics.

Renard said few events in the world enjoyed the kind of mass global coverage that the Olympics do, making them an attractive target for terrorists seeking to gain notoriety on the world stage. More than 50 years after the attack on the 1972 Munich Games in Germany, most still remember the carnage.

“If you hit the Olympics you are live on every world TV channel, and terrorism is all about publicity,” he said.

While security arrangements have tightened significantly since 1972, Renard said the scale of the event, number of sites across France and enormous crowds made the Olympics a target almost impossible to fully protect.

“It’s a logistical nightmare.”

The Russia problem

Russia is another major thorn in the side of French President Emmanuel Macron less than a week out from the opening ceremony, as heightened tensions between France and Moscow over the war in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s mercenaries in Africa threaten to spill over into the event.

French President Emmanuel Macron hugs Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris.Credit: AP

Both nations have been regularly exchanging barbs, with Macron accusing Putin of trying to sabotage the Olympics and Russian politicians issuing ominous warnings about their nation’s nuclear capabilities to wipe out Paris.

As previously reported by this masthead, Russia has been waging an active information war on Paris 2024 for months, using bots to push fake news in an attempt to muddy the waters and take the gloss off the Games.

French organisers have ramped up their cyber defences and turned to powerful Western allies for help as they prepare to fend off hundreds of thousands of cyberattacks during the two-week event, largely from Russia.

Experts say hackers could target transport networks, power grids, ticketing and broadcast systems, or turn to hundreds of pettier attacks designed to make the French government look incompetent and cause spectator chaos.

Professor of cyberwar and former Australian government adviser Greg Austin said Russia wouldn’t be content with a one-off attack and could seek to reach beyond the cyber realm to stir up radicals and amplify dissent. Russia’s disinformation campaign could also inspire protests and even terror attacks.

“I think we can expect serious attacks from Russia, both in cyberspace, in the information space, but also physical sabotage efforts,” Austin said.

Loan soldiers and AI spies

France has struggled to source the 45,000 police and security forces, 20,000 private security staff and 15,000 military personnel it needs to deploy each day to protect the event, turning to foreign allies to fill the gaps.

The move comes amid intense criticism from the police union, which has accused the government of being ill-prepared to tackle security threats and of subjecting police officers to poor working conditions.

“Police officers feel a certain anxiety about working conditions and safety,” union boss Anthony Caille told this masthead.

A French soldier at a military camp set up in the Vincennes woods, just outside Paris, housing troops used for Paris security.Credit: AP

Caille said that while considerable efforts were being made, he was concerned about the sufficiency of preparations, particularly around personnel and logistics, including reinforcements, weaponry and protective equipment.

Macron has remained staunch about his plans to hold the opening ceremony on the Seine, telling reporters in April that “there are always risks in life” but his government was doing all it could to ensure the safety of attendees.

“What the terrorists want is to prevent us from dreaming, and that’s their greatest victory,” a defiant Macron said.

Authorities have established two exclusion zones around the perimeter of the Seine in the lead-up to the opening ceremony – the first to be held outside a stadium in Olympic history – in an attempt to control the flow of people into the area. There are also at least three alternative plans on standby in the event the flotilla needs to be cancelled last minute, including ceremonies in a smaller format at the Trocadero, Stade de France and Saint-Denis precinct.

‘What the terrorists want is to prevent us from dreaming, and that’s their greatest victory.’

French President Emmanuel Macron

Security forces will also trial cameras with artificial intelligence capabilities to identify risks such as breaches into prohibited zones, weapons, abandoned packages and people moving in the opposite direction of traffic, after pushing new legislation known as the Olympic bill through last year. The decision has been met with backlash from civil libertarians who claim the technology infringes individual freedoms and could be misused.

Police officers stand by burning bicycles during tensions near Place de la Republique following the second round of the legislative elections on July 7. Credit: AP

Last week, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced authorities had refused Olympic accreditations to more than 3500 people they believed could pose a threat to the event. This included 16 individuals suspected of having been subject to Islamist radicalisation and “dozens of radical individuals close to Islamist, ultra-left and ultra-right circles”. Russian and Belarusian nationals were also banned from volunteering at the Games earlier this year over fears of physical sabotage.

“If there’s any country in Europe that is very aware of the risk, I think it’s France. I don’t think anyone can blame them for underplaying the threat or under-preparation,” Renard said.

“But of course, in the field of terrorism, we keep saying that there’s no such thing as zero risk.”

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