Olympic rings celebrating the IOC's official announcement that Paris has won the 2024 Olympic bid are seen in front of the Eiffel Tower in Trocadero Square in Paris, France, September 14, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo acquire license rights
Dec 4 (Reuters) – There is no “Plan B” for the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France's sports minister said on Monday, after a man armed with a knife and hammer killed a German tourist and left two people dead on Saturday injured near the Eiffel Tower.
“We don't have a plan B, we have a plan in which there are several sub-plans with a certain number of adjustment variables,” Amelie Oudea-Castera told France Inter Radio.
The 26-year-old suspect, a French citizen who was arrested after the attack, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a pre-recorded video, anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said on Sunday.
The attack occurred at the Quai de Grenelle – a location that was also included in the plans for the opening ceremony.
Asked whether the government was considering changing its plan to hold the ceremony on the Seine, where several hundred thousand spectators were expected to line its banks given the security threats, the minister said: “We are not working with that.”
“We have the capacity to secure the event,” she said, adding that certain details, including the number of additional cultural events surrounding the main spectacle, would be adjusted and that the security perimeter would be adjusted closer to the Games.
France has been on high alert since the security threshold was raised in October when a Chechen man used a knife to kill a teacher at a school in northern France.
European security officials are warning of a growing risk of attacks by Islamist militants in the war between Israel and Hamas, with the biggest threat likely to come from “lone wolves” who are difficult to track.
About 160 boats will set off from Pont d'Austerlitz on July 26 for a six-kilometer journey to Pont d'Iena. Tony Estanguet, the head of the organizing committee, described the event as “unique and spectacular”.
Reporting by Piotr Lipinski and Tassilo Hummel. Edited by Bernadette Baum
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