French intelligence foil major Olympic terror plot as they arrest would-be Isis bombers
Security is being ramped up in Paris ahead of the Olympics
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Several would-be Isis suicide bombers have been arrested in connection with two potential attacks on the Paris Olympic games.
Interior minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed intelligence officers had carried out "several arrests" in two separate cases.
Darmanin did not disclose the nature of the plots or who was behind them, however he said they are being handed over to the justice services "at this very moment."
However, an investigating source said those arrested were said to be connected to Khorasan, an Afghanistan-based offshoot of Isis.
Security is being ramped up in Paris ahead of the Olympics
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Islamic State Khorasan (Isis-K), named after an old term for the region that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the March attack on the Crocus City Hall outside Moscow in which 145 people died.
The group were responsible for the suicide bombings which took place outside the Stade de France in November 2015.
One man was killed, and 63 others were wounded in the attack before more atrocities were committed around Paris where 131 people were killed.
Darmanin said the terrorist threat in the nation remains "extremely high" as it prepares to go to the polls in a historically divisive and violent election on Sunday.
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Paris Olympics merchandise is on sale
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It comes as France is on its highest level of security alert as the Games approach, with the Parisian chief of Police saying Islamist terrorism is the main security worry.
Laurent Nunez told a press conference: "Islamist terrorism remains our main concern.
"There is no clear-cut threat yet against the Games and our country but I'd like to remind you that at the end of May, two individuals were arrested in Saint-Etienne and were plotting a project aimed directly at the Olympic Games.
"The terrorist threat remains just as important as the protest threat posed by radical environmental groups, the ultra-left and the pro-Palestinian movement."
The opening ceremony will be taking place on the Seine
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France has two big upcoming security challenges, Bastille Day on July 14 and the Olympic games which begin on July 26.
The opening ceremony is the first of its kind to be set to be the first to be held outside a stadium, with more than 10,000 athletes expected to sail along a 3.7-mile stretch of the Seine in Paris on 160 barges.
Organisers had originally planned to accommodate some 600,000 people to watch the ceremony from the riverbank, but this has been scaled down to 300,000.
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