PARIS (AP) — French authorities foiled three plots to attack the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris and other cities that hosted the summer events, the national counterterrorism prosecutor said on Wednesday.
Olivier Christen said the plots included plans to attack “ Israeli institutions or representatives of Israel in Paris” during the July 26-Aug. 11 Olympic competition. The prosecutor told broadcaster France Info that “the Israeli team itself was not specifically targeted.” He didn't give further details.
In all, five people, including a minor, were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the three foiled plots against the Summer Games, which were held against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war and Russia’s war in Ukraine. The suspects are facing various terrorism-related charges while they remain in pretrial detention, the prosecutor said.
France was on its highest security alert in the months ahead of the Olympics and Paralympics, which wrapped up last week. During preparations for the Games, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin repeatedly warned that security threats included those from Islamic extremist groups, violent environmental activists, far-right groups and cyberattacks from Russia or other adversaries.
In May, members of the General Directorate of Internal Security arrested an 18-year-old man from Chechnya on suspicion of being behind a plan to attack Olympic soccer events that were held in the southern city of Saint-Etienne.
The planned attack was to target “bar-type establishments around the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium,” the prosecutor said. The suspect is accused of planning “a violent action” on behalf of the Islamic State group’s jihadi ideology.
Jihadists threats dominated the foiled plots and 80% of legal proceedings against suspects include the extremist ideology that still influences France’s youth, the prosecutor said. IS continues to “spread propaganda,” he added.
Preventive measures included increased house searches and house arrests before the start of the Olympics, the prosecutor said, adding that police and other security personnel conducted 936 house searches so far in 2024, compared to 153 last year.
France also strengthened its airspace defences during the summer Olympics and Paralympics, deploying war planes, attack helicopters, surveillance aircraft, military and police drones among others to patrol the skies over Paris and the Mediterranean port city of Marseille that hosted sailing and soccer events.
The French Air and Space Force completed more than 750 flight hours in 350 missions that resulted in 90 interceptions, according to a statement from the Defense Ministry on Wednesday.
Most interceptions were civilian drones, the statement said, adding that 85 drone operators were arrested. They were mostly tourists unaware of the regulations in place during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the statement said.
Two civilian drone operators were arrested for “delivering illegal equipment to a prison,” it added.
This story has been corrected to show that the name of the stadium in Saint-Etienne is Geoffroy-Guichard, not Geoffroy.
FILE - Police are seen near the pitch during a men's semifinal soccer match between Morocco and Spain at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, at Marseille Stadium in Marseille, France. Spain won 2-1. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Soldiers dropped sandbags from military helicopters to reinforce river embankments and evacuated residents as the worst flooding in years spread Tuesday to a broad swath of Central Europe, taking lives and destroying homes.
Heavy flooding has affected a large part of the region in recent days, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria. There have been at least 17 deaths reported in the flooding, which follow heavy rainfall across the region.
Other places are now bracing for the flood waves, including two Central European gems: Budapest, the Hungarian capital on the Danube River, and Wroclaw, a city in southwestern Poland on the Oder River, its old town filled with architectural treasures.
Hungary's government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán deployed soldiers to reinforce barriers along the Danube, and thousands of volunteers assisted in filling sandbags in dozens of riverside settlements.
In Budapest, authorities closed the city’s lower quays, which are expected to be breached by rising waters later Tuesday. The lower half of the city’s iconic Margaret Island was also closed.
In Wroclaw, firefighters and soldiers spent the night using sandbags to reinforce river embankments. The city zoo, located along the Oder, appealed for volunteers to fill sandbags on Tuesday morning.
“We and our animals will be extremely grateful for your help,” the zoo said in its appeal.
The city said it expected the flood wave to peak there around Friday, though some had predicted that would happen sooner. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk met with a crisis team early Tuesday and said there are contradictory forecasts from meteorologists.
Tusk's government has declared a state of natural disaster across southern Poland.
To the south of Wroclaw, residents spent the night fighting to save Nysa, a town of 44,000 people, after the Nysa Klodzka River broke its banks the day before. Mayor Kordian Kolbiarz said 2,000 “women, men, children, the elderly” came out to try to save their town from the rising waters, forming a human chain that passed sandbags to the river bank.
“We simply … did everything we could," Kolbiarz wrote on Facebook. "This chain of people fighting for our Nysa was incredible. Thank you. We fought for Nysa. Our home. Our families. Our future.”
Later on Tuesday, authorities in Nysa said the city center had been saved from the flooding.
In Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, the deputy mayor for the environment, Jakub Mrva, said the level of the Danube had peaked and would slowly decrease. He said that mobile barriers had saved the historic center, but that there was still damage, including to tram lines.
“We also observed major damage at the zoo, which is flooded, and there is relatively high damage in the city forests of Bratislava, where many trees have perished,” Mrva told The Associated Press in an interview, speaking next to the flooded banks of the Danube in Bratislava.
In the Czech Republic, waters have been receding in the two hardest-hit northeast regions. The government approved the deployment of 2,000 troops to help with clean-up efforts. The damage is expected to reach billions of euros.
The Czech government also scrambled to help local authorities organize regional elections on Friday and Saturday as several schools and other buildings serving as polling stations have been badly damaged. However, a planned evacuation of some 1,000 in the town of Veseli nad Luznici could be postponed as the waters had not reached critical levels so far.
Associated Press writers Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, Karel Janicek in Prague, and photographer Tomas Hrivnak in Bratislava, Slovakia contributed to this report.
Soldiers who help strengthen the embankments and to prevent floodings walk by sandbags near the city of Wroclaw, southwestern Poland, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Krzysztof Zatycki)
This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows firefighters removing piles of debris dumped in the streets by high flood wave that is passing through southwestern Poland, in Glucholazy, Poland, on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. ( Marcin Muskala/KG PSP via AP)
This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows firefighters removing piles of debris dumped in the streets by high flood wave that is passing through southwestern Poland, in Glucholazy, Poland, on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. ( Marcin Muskala/KG PSP via AP)
This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows firefighters removing piles of debris dumped in the streets by high flood wave that is passing through southwestern Poland, in Glucholazy, Poland, on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. ( Marcin Muskala/KG PSP via AP)
This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows firefighters removing piles of debris dumped in the streets by high flood wave that is passing through southwestern Poland, in Glucholazy, Poland, on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. ( Marcin Muskala/KG PSP via AP)
Firemen deliver aid to residents whose homes are flooded in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Soldiers fill and arrange sandbags to help strengthen the embankments and to prevent flooding near the city of Wroclaw, southwestern Poland, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Krzysztof Zatycki)
This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows firefighters removing piles of debris dumped in the streets by high flood wave that is passing through southwestern Poland, in Glucholazy, Poland, on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. ( Marcin Muskala/KG PSP via AP)
A cyclist pushes his bicycle through a flooded street in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Residents paddle through a flooded street in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
A resident carries his bicycle as others paddle through a flooded street in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
A resident paddles through a flooded street in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Residents use sandbags to strengthen the embankment of the Oder River on its way to Wroclaw, southwestern Poland, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Krzysztof Zatycki)
View of the Bratislava castle as the water level of the Danube river rises during recent floods in Slovakia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Tomas Hrivnak)
This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows a flooded area near the Nysa Klodzka river in Nysa, Poland on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (KG PSP Photo via AP)
The Elbe floods against the backdrop of the old town at dawn Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Saxony, Dresden, Germany. (Sebastian Kahnert/dpa via AP)
People fill sandbags to reinforce the dam due to the flooding of the Danube river at Tahitotfalu, Hungary, on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
A fireman and residents look at flooding waters in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Vehicles are partially covered by water during floods in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
An aerial view of a flooded neighbourhood in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows a flooded area near the Nysa Klodzka river in Nysa, Poland on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (KG PSP Photo via AP)
This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows a flooded area near the Nysa Klodzka river in Nysa, Poland on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (KG PSP Photo via AP)
