Paris Olympic bid goes ahead despite Louvre attack

The Paris bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics suffered an untimely setback on Friday when a man armed with a machete was shot and wounded by a French soldier at the Louvre Museum.

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, November 28, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

Paris is submitting its bid to the International Olympic Committee on Friday
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The day is 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 in the north of Paris.

Officials said the events will 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 programme is unchanged," a spokesperson for Paris 2024 told FRANCE 24. "We were already on high alert. The sites have already been secured and anti-bomb squads have checked the facilities."

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

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

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.

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.

Speaking outside the Louvre, Hidalgo, who will attend Friday night's opening ceremony alongside athletes and other bid leaders, said all big cities in the world are under threat. She said that "there is not a single one escaping that menace".

On Friday the bid committee reiterated its confidence, in particular that 95 percent of Paris's needed infrastructure to host the games was already in place.

All that is left to build is a pool and a new Olympic village in the Seine-Saint-Denis neighbourhood, which France hopes will benefit from much-needed investment.