Risknet19 July 2024

An immigrant from Congo with a criminal record stabbed a soldier shortly before 2200 yesterday outside a train station in eastern Paris, underscoring concerns about possible terrorist attacks during the Summer Olympics.

The soldier was attacked while on patrol outside the Gare de l’Est.  He was hospitalized with a shoulder-blade wound.
 
The assailant, 40-year-old Christian Ingondo, was arrested at the scene.  He was transferred to a psychiatric hospital under police supervision this morning.
 
Ingondo was under investigation for a 2018 murder in Paris but the charges were dropped in 2020, when he was subjected to mandatory hospitalization.
 
Authorities have not classified the attack as terrorism.
 
But the stabbing of the soldier was reminiscent of the numerous primitive terrorist attacks staged in France in the 2010s by supporters of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
 
Senior French security officials repeatedly have said that Islamic terrorism poses the chief risk to the Olympics, which run from 26 July to 11 August.

French security services are on high alert.  They plan to deploy 35,000 police and gendarmes, up to 22,000 private security personnel and around 18,000 military personnel each day of the Games.
 
President Emmanuel Macron has said that the large boat procession of athletes on the Seine River planned for the opening ceremony could be downgraded to a less elaborate event in a secure venue if a credible terrorism threat emerges. 
 
Despite the exhaustive efforts of France’s competent security services, organized attacks on the Olympics by trained Islamic terrorists cannot be ruled out.
 
It will be particularly challenging to prevent terrorist attacks by radicalized singletons and small groups of amateurs using weapons at hand, such as knives and vehicles.
 
With security tight at sporting venues and transportation hubs during the Olympics, both sophisticated and primitive Islamic terrorists could opt to target crowds on the street or in relatively unprotected enclosed places such as cafes, restaurants and stores.
 
Personnel may conduct routine business in France, including Paris before and during the Olympics.  But they should avoid crowded public venues and sporting and entertainment events at which access control procedures are observed to be lax.  Senior executives should be escorted by seasoned local security professionals.
 
Personnel should minimize their exposure to traditional Islamic terrorist targets, including subways, commuter trains, famous cathedrals, museums, landmarks that attract large numbers of tourists, hotels, government buildings, Jewish sites and Western embassies.  They should pass as quickly as possible from public lobbies to secure areas of airports.  Generally, personnel should opt for boutique—as opposed to landmark—hotels.  Boutique hotels are plentiful in Paris.  Multinationals, especially those located near transportation hubs and famous places, should review and, if necessary, upgrade bomb defenses.