Chechen teenager arrested in France over Islamist-inspired Olympic attack plot

French security services have arrested a Chechen teenager suspected of plotting an “Islamist-inspired” attack on a football game during this summer’s Olympics, the interior ministry said.

The domestic intelligence agency DGSI arrested an 18-year-old of Chechen origin in Saint-Etienne, in south-east France, the ministry said, calling it the “first foiled attack against the Olympic Games”.

France is on its highest alert level for attacks ahead of the Paris Games, for which about 10 millions visitors and 10,000 athletes are expected.

The sport is set to take place mostly in the capital but other towns and cities around France will host some disciplines as well as individual games.

The ministry said the arrested man was suspected of “actively preparing an attack against the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium [in Saint-Etienne] during the football games that will take place there. He intended to attack spectators but also security forces and die as a martyr.”

The revelations could set nerves jangling in France where organisers have faced persistent questions about the risk of an attack that would seriously tarnish the world’s biggest sporting event.

Most concerns have focused on the opening ceremony on 26 July, which will take place over a four-mile stretch of the Seine – the first time a summer Olympics has begun outside the athletics stadium.

Policing such a vast area of the capital represents a huge challenge: 45,000 officers will be on duty and large swathes of the centre will be out of bounds for everyone except ticket holders and local residents.

France has been targeted by Islamist attackers over the last decade, often by individuals inspired by al-Qaida or Islamic State (IS). In October last year a radicalised 20-year-old Chechen who had sworn allegiance to IS killed a teacher in the northern French town of Arras.

The Olympic torch relay is under way in France, involving a “security bubble” of 100 officers including anti-drone specialists and anti-terror police.

During the first three weeks of the 7,500-mile (12,000km) trip, 78 people were arrested for trying to disrupt the relay and 30 suspect drones were intercepted, according to figures from the interior ministry this week.

The Olympics have been attacked in the past, most infamously in 1972 in Munich and again in 1996 in Atlanta.