AFP Paris
Paris
Updated Sunday, March 24, 2024-22:46
France
raised the attack alert level to its maximum, following Friday's attack on a Moscow concert hall
claimed
by the Islamic State group, French Prime Minister
Gabriel Attal announced on Sunday.
"Given the claim of the attack by the Islamic State and the threats that weigh on our country, we decided to raise the
Vigipirate
plan to its highest level: urgency of the attack," Attal wrote on the social network X, after a meeting of the defense council.
The alert level had been reduced in January to category two (reinforced security or risk of attack).
"The claim for the Moscow attack comes from the
Islamic State of Khorasan.
This organization threatens France and has participated in several recently foiled attacks in several European countries, including
Germany
and France," the prime minister's office said.
French President
Emmanuel Macron
chaired a meeting of the defense council on "the Moscow attack and its consequences" on Sunday, four months before the start of the Olympic Games in the country's capital.
The mega sporting event will take place from July 26 to August 11.
The attack on the Crocus City Hall
concert hall in Moscow
on Friday left
137 dead and 182 injured,
according to the most recent toll.
The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Russian authorities point to a Ukrainian lead, stating that the attackers tried to flee to Ukraine, where they supposedly had contacts.
Ukraine denies any involvement in this attack, the deadliest in Russia since the early 2000s.