Notre-Dame de Paris, referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral was consecrated to the Virgin Mary and considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. Its pioneering use of the rib vault and flying buttress, its enormous and colourful rose windows, as well as the naturalism and abundance of its sculptural decoration set it apart from the earlier Romanesque style. Major components that make Notre Dame stand out include its large historic organ and its immense church bells.
The 1995 France bombings were a series of attacks that targeted public transport systems in Paris and Lyon, as well as a school in Villeurbanne. They were carried out by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria, who were expanding the Algerian Civil War to France. The attacks killed eight people, all during the first attack on 25 July 1995. The attack also injured 157 people.
In December 2000, an al-Qaeda-linked plot to bomb the Strasbourg Christmas market, at the feet of the Strasbourg Cathedral on New Year's Eve was discovered. The plot was foiled by French and German police after a terrorist network based in Frankfurt, Germany, the "Frankfurt group", was unravelled. A total of fourteen people were convicted as part of the plot; four in Germany and ten in France, including the operational leader, Mohammed Bensakhria, thought to be a European deputy to Osama bin Laden. The alleged mastermind of the plot was thought to have been Abu Doha, who was detained in the United Kingdom.
A propane bomb is a type of improvised explosive device which uses commercially available bottled gas cylinders, a kind of BLEVE. The devices have been used in terror attacks and school bombing plots.
Crime in France is combated by a range of French law enforcement agencies.
Terrorism in France refers to the terrorist attacks that have targeted the country and its population during the 20th and 21st centuries. Terrorism, in this case is much related to the country's history, international affairs and political approach. Legislation has been set up by lawmakers to fight terrorism in France.
The November 2015 Paris attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks that took place on Friday 13 November 2015 in Paris, France and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 9:15pm, three suicide bombers struck outside the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, during an international football match, after failing to gain entry to the stadium. Another group of attackers then fired on crowded cafés and restaurants in Paris, with one of them also blowing himself up. A third group carried out another mass shooting and took hostages at a rock concert attended by 1,500 people in the Bataclan theatre, leading to a stand-off with police. The attackers were either shot or blew themselves up when police raided the theatre.
Osama Krayem, also known as Naïm or Naim al Hamed, is a Swedish national of Syrian origin and a suspected terrorist involved in the 2016 Brussels bombings. He was one of five men arrested on 8 April 2016 by the Belgian police.
On 13 June 2016, a police officer and his partner, a police secretary, were stabbed to death in their home in Magnanville, France, located about 55 km (34 mi) west of Paris, by a man convicted in 2013 of associating with a group planning terrorist acts. Amaq News Agency, an online outlet said to be sponsored by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), said that a source had claimed that ISIL was behind the attack, an assertion that was later validated.
On 26 July 2016, two Islamist terrorists attacked participants in a Mass at a Catholic church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, northern France. Wielding knives and wearing fake explosive belts, the men took six people captive and later killed one of them, 85-year-old priest Jacques Hamel, by slitting his throat, and also critically wounded an 86-year-old man. The terrorists were shot dead by BRI police as they tried to leave the church.
The Sid Ahmed Ghlam case concerns the 2015 murder of Aurélie Châtelain and planning of an attack against a church in Villejuif, France by Algerian national Sid Ahmed Ghlam. In November 2020, Ghlam was sentenced to life in prison by a Paris court.
Islamic terrorism in Europe has been carried out by the Islamic State (ISIL) or Al-Qaeda as well as Islamist lone wolves since the late 20th century. Europol, which releases the annual EU Terrorism Situation and Trend report (TE-SAT), used the term "Islamist terrorism" in the years 2006–2010, "religiously inspired terrorism" 2011–2014, and has used "jihadist terrorism" since 2015. Europol defines jihadism as "a violent ideology exploiting traditional Islamic concepts".
ISIL-related terrorist attacks in France refers to the terrorist activity of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in France, including attacks committed by ISIL-inspired lone wolves. The French military operation Opération Sentinelle has been ongoing in France since the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks.
On 6 June 2017, at around 16:00 CET, French police shot a man who attacked a police officer with a hammer outside Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral on the Île de la Cité, located in the centre of Paris. The man injured the officer with the hammer, and was found to be in possession of kitchen knives. French police opened a terrorism investigation.
On 19 June 2017, a car loaded with guns and explosives was rammed into a convoy of Gendarmerie vehicles on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, France. The driver, identified as Djaziri Adam Lotfi was killed as a detonation clouded the car in orange smoke. The attacker had been on terrorism watchlists for Islamic extremism since 2014, and pledged his allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before the attack. In a letter to his family he stated that he for years had supported "the Mujahedeen who fight to save Islam and the Muslims," having practiced shooting "to prepare for jihad," and stated that the attack should be treated as a "martyrdom operation."
On 13–14 December 2017, Russian security authorities arrested seven members of an ISIL terrorist cell during a police operation in St. Petersburg. The suspects were alleged to have plotted suicide bombings in St. Petersburg on the weekend of 16–17 December 2017, with the Kazan Cathedral among the targets. Both the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) were involved in the operation.
On the evening of 11 December 2018, a terrorist attack occurred in Strasbourg, France, when a man attacked civilians in the city's busy Christkindelsmärik with a revolver and a knife, killing five and wounding 11 before fleeing in a taxi. Authorities called the shooting an act of terrorism.
ZAD de Notre-Dame-des-Landes is the most well-known 'Zone to Defend' in France. Located in the Loire-Atlantique department near to Nantes, it is a very large, mostly agricultural terrain of 1,650 hectares which became nationally famous in the early 2010s and has resisted several concerted attempts by the French state to evict it.
