French Soldier Stabbed in Paris Ahead of Olympics

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Above: French army soldiers take part in Operation Sentinelle in which combat troops patrol streets and protect key sites on March 14, 2024 in Paris, France. Image copyright: Pascal Le Segretain/Staff/Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images

The Facts

  • On Monday, a French soldier was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after being stabbed outside a train station in Paris just 11 days before the kick-off of the 2024 Summer Olympics.

  • The suspect, 40-year-old Christian Ingondo, was transferred from custody to a psychiatric hospital on Tuesday. His background and motivations are currently being investigated, and was last in police custody in 2018 for murder charges.

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The Spin

Narrative A

Terrorist groups, especially the Islamic State group, have made France a top target, with the memory of the 2015 attacks still fresh in the public's mind. Jihadist propaganda has since posed a threat at home, with teenagers as young as 16 being implicated in threats. It remains to be seen if the Olympics can pass without bloodshed in the face of such a large domestic threat to security posed by radical Islam and foreign interference.

UnHerd

Narrative B

France and their security partners abroad have been working around the clock to ensure the Games run smoothly. The French government has already foiled a terrorist plot and has beefed up security measures considerably. While the security challenges the country faces are real, there is no reason to expect there to be a cataclysm approaching that of 2015.

RFI

Metaculus Prediction