A plan to attack soccer events during the Paris Olympics was foiled by security authorities in France, officials said.
Gerald Darmanin, the interior minister in France, said in a statement that an 18-year-old man from Chechnya was arrested on May 22 on suspicion of being behind a plan to attack soccer events planned in the southeastern city of Saint-Etienne, about 260 miles south of Paris.
French authorities raised preliminary terrorism charges against the man, who they accuse of planning a “violent action” on behalf of the Islamic State group’s jihadist ideology, the national counterterrorism prosecutor’s office said in a statement later on Friday. The man is being held in custody pending further investigation.
According to the initial investigation, the man was preparing an attack targeting the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium in the city of Saint-Etienne which will host several soccer matches during the Summer Games.
The planned attack was to target spectators and police forces, the statement said. The suspect wanted to attack the Olympic events “to die and become a martyr,” the statement also said.
Darmanin, the interior minister, did not cite a specific security threat against the soccer event, but has said there are multiple potential threats, including those from Islamic extremist groups, violent environmental activists, far-right groups and cyberattacks from Russia or other adversaries.