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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Jacob Phillips

Attacker stabs French soldier outside Paris train station ahead of the Olympics

A French soldier was stabbed outside a train station in Paris, just 11 days before the city hosts the 2024 Olympics.

The soldier was rushed to hospital with a shoulder blade injury after being attacked while on patrol at the Gare de l'Est train station in eastern Paris on Monday.

The attacker was arrested and French officials confirmed the soldier was not in life-threatening condition.

The motive for the attack was under investigation, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

An investigation was opened into attempted murder, and the suspect's identity was being confirmed, the prosecutor's office said.

Authorities did not suspect terrorism as a motive at this stage, according to the national counterterrorism prosecutor's office.

Paris is under a high security alert ahead of the Olympics, with the opening ceremony taking place on July 26.

The soldier was among thousands of troops serving in the Sentinelle force for France's domestic security, created to guard prominent French sites after a string of deadly Islamic extremist attacks in 2015. Soldiers in the Sentinelle force have been targeted in the past.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin posted on X that the soldier was patrolling at the Gare de l'Est train station in eastern Paris, and that the assailant was detained.

Paris is deploying around 30,000 police officers each day for the Olympics, which run from July 26 to August 11, with a peak of 45,000 for the opening ceremony on the Seine river.

About 18,000 members of the military are also helping ensure security, including thousands housed in a huge, special camp erected on the edge of Paris.

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