Attacker stabs and wounds French soldier patrolling Paris ahead of the Olympics

By The Associated Press

Soldiers leave for a patrol at the military camp set up in the Vincennes woods, Monday, July 15, 2024 just outside Paris. The military camp, with prefabricated barracks and sleeping stretchers, is being built in the east of Paris to house 4,500 soldiers assigned to security during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Thomas Padilla]

PARIS (AP) — A French soldier was stabbed outside a big train station in Paris on Monday and the attacker was arrested, officials said, while the city is under a high security alert 11 days before the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics.

The soldier was hospitalized with a shoulder blade injury, but was not in life-threatening condition, and 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.

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 Aug. 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.