attack<\/a> on a Moscow concert hall that killed more than 130 people has raised fresh security fears for the Paris Olympics, leading France\u2019s interior minister to promise Monday that police and intelligence services would be \u201cready\u201d.<\/p>\nThe government upgraded the country\u2019s terror threat level to its maximum on Sunday, with France a frequent target of the Islamic State (IS) group which has claimed responsibility for Friday\u2019s bloodshed in the Russian capital.<\/p>\n
President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that the IS entity believed to be behind the killings \u2014 known as Khorasan, which is a branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan \u2014 had also sought to attack France.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis particular group made several attempts [at attacks] on our own soil,\u201d Macron told reporters after arriving on a trip to the French South American region of French Guiana.<\/p>\n
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that the Paris Olympics, which begin on July 26, were an obvious future target.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrance, because we defend universal values, and are for secularism\u2026 is particularly threatened, notably during extraordinary events such as the Olympics,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe French police, gendarmes, prefects, intelligence services, will be ready,\u201d he added, saying that \u201cwe have a very effective intelligence system. We stop plots developing almost every month.\u201d The heads of intelligence services would hold a meeting on Thursday \u201cto discuss all the conclusions of the attack on Moscow,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said that 4,000 extra soldiers would be deployed nationwide in the days to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe terrorist threat is real, it\u2019s strong,\u201d he told reporters, adding that two plots had been thwarted already this year.<\/p>\n
At least 137 people were killed when gunmen stormed Moscow\u2019s Crocus City Hall on Friday evening before setting the building on fire. The assault echoed an attack on the Bataclan music venue in Paris in November 2015 which left 90 people dead and was also claimed by the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n
The Olympics have been attacked in the past \u2014 most infamously in 1972 in Munich and again in 1996 in Atlanta \u2014 with the thousands of athletes, huge crowds and live global television audience making it a target.<\/p>\n
French organisers have faced persistent questioning over their choice of opening ceremony, which is set to take place outside of the athletics stadium for the first time.<\/p>\n
Athletes are instead set to sail down the river Seine in a flotilla of river boats in a made-for-TV extravaganza that has been resisted by some security officials because of the challenges for police.<\/p>\n
Organisers say there is no plan B, but have suggested that the ceremony might be downgraded \u2014 meaning athletes might not board the boats \u2014 in the event of credible threats against the event.<\/p>\n
French security forces are screening up to a million people before the Games, including athletes and people living close to key infrastructure, according to the interior ministry.<\/p>\n
France was last placed on its highest terror alert in October after a suspected Islamist burst into a school in the north of the country and stabbed a teacher to death. The alert was downgraded in January.<\/p>\n
The highest alert of the so-called \u201cVigipirate\u201d system means that security forces will maintain a more visible presence on French streets and be posted in front of possible targets such as a government buildings, transport infrastructure or schools.<\/p>\n
Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS: The attack on a Moscow concert hall that killed more than 130 people has raised fresh security fears for the Paris Olympics, leading France\u2019s interior minister to promise Monday that police and intelligence services would be \u201cready\u201d. The government upgraded the country\u2019s terror threat level to its maximum on Sunday, with France a frequent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/03\/2611030794ed827.jpg?r=110620","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}