France triggers highest terror alert warning days after attack in Moscow

France has raised its terror alert to the highest level and has beefed up security after a catastrophic concert hall attack in Russia’s Moscow last week killed over 140 people. The decision comes as Paris is gearing up to host the 2024 Olympic Games.

The European country will increase armed patrolling, including patrols by military personnel in public areas such as train stations, airports, and religious sites.

‘Threats weighing on France’

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal took to X to announce the terror alert after a security cabinet meeting, attended by President Emmanuel Macron.

“Given the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility for the attack and the threats weighing on our country, we have decided to raise the [national security alert] to the highest level: Attack Emergency,” Attal wrote in his post.

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À la suite de l’attentat de Moscou, un Conseil de Défense et de Sécurité nationale a été réuni ce soir à l’Elysée par le Président de la République.

Compte tenu de la revendication de l’attentat par l’état islamique et des menaces qui pèsent sur notre pays, nous avons décidé de…

— Gabriel Attal (@GabrielAttal) March 24, 2024

France has three levels in its terror alert system, the highest level is declared if it is assumed that an attack is imminent.

The French capital has also scaled down its 2024 Olympic opening ceremony plans which will take place in July on the River Seine, amid concerns over a theoretical Islamist terror attack.

For many years France has been under several attacks by Islamist State terrorists. In 2015, IS terrorists attacked the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, cafes, and France’s national stadium killing 130 people, in the deadliest peacetime attack in French history.

What happened in Moscow last week?

Last Friday, at Crocus City Hall concert hall in Russia, terrorists from the Afghanistan-based “Islamic State Khorasan Province” (IS-K) group began shooting at concert-goers with automatic rifles killing 137 innocent people and injuring 140.

Russian authorities have largely ignored ISIS’s claim of responsibility and instead suggested that Ukraine was behind the attack. Ukraine has denied any involvement, with American officials saying there is no evidence connecting Kyiv to the concert hall attack.

Russian officials have detained at least 11 people, for being directly involved in the attack. However, they have not identified the assailants or their motives, but say the suspects are foreign nationals

President Vladimir Putin vowed to track down those behind the attack. In an address, he said, “All the perpetrators, organisers and those who ordered this crime will be justly and inevitably punished. Whoever they are, whoever is guiding them,” Putin said. “We will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists, who prepared this atrocity, this strike against Russia, against our people.”