Days before Paris Olympics, French police arrest 2 suspected of plotting possible violent terrorist acts

Two 18-year-olds living in the Gironde region of France have been arrested ahead of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics on charges of preparing one or more terrorist attacks, France’s National Terrorism Prosecution Office confirmed to CBS News on Thursday.

“The investigations relate to one or more possible violent actions that these young people may have planned,” prosecutors said. “As it stands, we are seeking to verify the reality of the project(s) beyond what is said on the internet and, where applicable, its/their degree of success.”

One man was arrested Tuesday in Gironde, in southwest France, several hundred miles from Paris, and the other was arrested Thursday while traveling, prosecutors told CBS News.

French authorities have made a number of arrests and foiled several alleged plots to disrupt the Olympics in the leadup to the games, The Associated Press reported, and France has been on high alert during the final few weeks of preparation.

A Russian man was arrested earlier this week and charged with “conducting intelligence work on behest of a foreign power” aiming to “provoke hostilities in France,” the AP reported.

A search of that suspect’s home had “raised fears of his intention to organize events likely to lead to destabilization of the Olympic Games,” prosecutors said.

“We have a list of threats on which we are particularly focused, including the cyberthreat,” National Police spokesperson Sonia Fibleuil told The AP.

Such threats “can consist of fake news and disinformation or online campaigns to amplify a piece of news with bots and mass circulate it,” Fibleuil said.

An example included a video shared on social media that appeared to show a Hamas threat against the Olympics, but which was found to be fake by French intelligence and denied by the group on social media.

Frank Andrews contributed to this report.