Thwarted machete attack outside Louvre clouds Paris Olympic bid

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The Paris bid to host the 2024 Olympics suffered an untimely setback on Friday when a French soldier wounded a man armed with a machete as he tried to enter the Louvre Museum.

Paris was submitting its bid to the International Olympic Committee on Friday, a day set to culminate in the evening with a launch show at the Eiffel Tower, the last of a series of demos that started in the morning at a school in the Seine Saint-Denis suburban area.

A photo shows the Pyramid (L) of the Louvre Museum and the Arc de Triomphe of the Carrousel (C) on February 3, 2017 in Paris, after a soldier patrolling at the museum shot and seriously injured a machete-wielding attacker. /CFP Photo

Officials said the events would go ahead as planned despite the Louvre incident, in which police said a man carrying two bags and shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) rushed at police and soldiers before being shot near the museum's shopping mall. The man was alive but seriously wounded after what the government said appeared to be a terrorist attack.

"The program is unchanged," a spokesperson for Paris 2024 said.

"We were already on high alert. The sites have already been secured with notably anti-bomb squads checking the facilities."

A news conference featuring Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was scheduled at 1600 GMT.

Paris is competing with Los Angeles and Budapest to host the 2024 Olympics.

A general view shows the illuminated Eiffel Tower (L), the Hotel des Invalides (R) and rooftops at night in Paris, France, one of the Olympics 2024 bid cities, on November 28, 2016. /CFP Photo

"This terrorist threat concerns all the cities in the world. We have extremely efficient security services in our city," said Hidalgo after the Louvre incident.

Cazeneuve said during a visit to Bayeux in Normandy: "It appears to be an attempted attack of a terrorist nature."

France has been hit by a series of militant Islamist attacks over the past two years in which more than 230 people have been killed.

Policemen stand guard near the Louvre Museum on February 3, 2017 in Paris, after a soldier patrolling at the museum shot and seriously injured a machete-wielding attacker. /CFP Photo

The soldier who fired at the machete-wielding man on Friday was from one of the patrolling groups that have become a common sight around Paris since a state of emergency was declared across France in November 2015. It remains in force.

(Source: Reuters)

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