Poll: 57 percent think terror attack likely at Winter Olympics

More than half of the public thinks a terrorist attack is likely at the Olympic Games that begin this week in Sochi, Russia, according to a new poll.

The CNN/ORC poll found 57 percent of respondents thought a terrorist attack on the games was “likely.”

{mosads}That number is up slightly from a poll that found 51 percent thought an attack was likely ahead of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, when a bombing did occur.

A similar poll conducted by Quinnipiac last month found 12 percent thought a terrorist attack was “very likely” and 38 percent thought it was “somewhat likely.”

Concerns about a terrorism attack in Russia during the Olympics have been heightened in recent weeks, as Islamic militant groups from the North Caucasus have threatened to attack the games.

The White House has said there’s been an “uptick” in threat reporting, and U.S. intelligence officials have warned the greater threat might come from locations outside of Sochi.

“We think the greater danger from a terrorist perspective is in potential for attacks to occur outside of the actual venues of the games themselves in the area surrounding Sochi or outside of Sochi in the region,” Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said at a House hearing Tuesday.

A pair of suicide bombers struck the Russian city of Volgograd in December, in attacks on a train station and trolley bus that killed 34 people.

The Associated Press reported Russian security forces on Wednesday killed Dzhamaldin Mirzayev, a militant who is said to have helped train the Volgograd bombers.