Man who stabbed French soldier ahead of Olympics taken to psychiatric hospital

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Man Who Stabbed French Soldier Ahead Of Olympics Taken To Psychiatric Hospital
Soldiers leave for a military camp set up in the Vincennes woods, ahead of the start of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, © Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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By Associated Press Reporters

The man who stabbed and wounded a French soldier patrolling Paris just days before the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics has been taken to a psychiatric hospital, French prosecutors said on Tuesday.

The attack happened outside the Gare de l’Est station in eastern Paris on Monday.

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The city has been under a high security alert before the start of the Summer Games on July 26.

The soldier was taken to hospital suffering from a shoulder blade injury, but was not in life-threatening condition, officials said after the attack.


The stabbing happened outside the Gare de l’Est station in eastern Paris on Monday (Paul Thompson Live News/Alamy/PA)

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A statement from the Paris Public Prosecutor’s office on Tuesday identified the attacker as 40-year-old Christian Ingondo, who was born in Congo.

Ingondo was released from custody on Tuesday morning and transferred to a psychiatric hospital under police supervision, the statement said.

Investigations into attempted murder and the suspect’s background are continuing, it added.

In 2018, Ingondo was under judicial investigation on murder charges, the prosecutor’s statement said.

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Two years later, in 2020, the investigating judges dropped charges against him and ordered a mandatory admission to hospital.


Paris Olympics Security
Soldiers arrive at the military camp being set up in the Vincennes woods, just outside Paris, to house 4,500 troops assigned to security during the 2024 Olympic Games (Thomas Padilla/AP)

Thousands of troops serve in the Sentinelle force for France’s domestic security, created to guard prominent French sites after a string of deadly Islamic State extremist attacks in 2015. Soldiers in the Sentinelle force have been targeted in the past.

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Paris is deploying around 30,000 police officers each day for the Olympics, which run from July 26 to August 11, with a peak of 45,000 for the opening ceremony on the River Seine.

About 18,000 members of the military are also helping ensure security, with thousands of them staying in a huge camp erected on the edge of Paris.

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