{"id":4885,"date":"2024-07-24T01:13:44","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T01:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/huge-security-operation-under-way-as-games-near\/"},"modified":"2024-07-24T01:13:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T01:13:44","slug":"huge-security-operation-under-way-as-games-near","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/huge-security-operation-under-way-as-games-near\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge security operation under way as Games near"},"content":{"rendered":"


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French authorities are staging an unprecedented security operation for the opening ceremony<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A scrum of disappointed tourists stared, wistfully, through the maze of metal fences lining the River Seine. Ahead of them, Notre Dame cathedral and other Parisian treasures lay, tantalisingly, out of reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a code,\u201d said a woman from Mexico, watching others \u2013 armed with the requisite QR security code \u2013 pass, with an approving beep, through a police checkpoint.<\/p>\n

Further downstream, beside the Eiffel Tower, a weary couple trailing large suitcases performed a slow U-turn on a crowded pavement.<\/p>\n

\u201cClosed. You\u2019ll have to walk around,\u201d a French gendarme had just told them, gesturing towards the south.<\/p>\n

As Paris prepares to unveil its unique Olympic opening ceremony \u2013 a river-based extravaganza that will see athletes on burnished barges being paraded through the heart of the French capital on Friday evening \u2013 the country\u2019s police and armed forces are laying the finishing touches to an equally unprecedented security operation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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France has put tens of thousands of troops on the streets of Paris ahead of the Olympics<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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\u201cWe are ready,\u201d declared a cheerful President Emmanuel Macron, his customary swagger seemingly undented by weeks of political turmoil prompted by his recent shock decision to dissolve the French parliament.<\/p>\n

The security operation \u2013 the phrase hardly does justice to the scale of it \u2013 involves the largest peacetime deployment of security forces in French history, with up to 75,000 police, soldiers and hired guards on patrol in Paris at any one time. <\/p>\n

Roads and metro stations have been closed. Some 44,000 barriers have been erected. And an elaborate system of QR codes has been set up for residents and others seeking access to the river Seine and its islands.<\/p>\n

There have, inevitably, been teething problems and frustrations in a city that would ordinarily be teeming with unrestricted foreign tourists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a little bit worried. I\u2019ve never seen it so calm. Ninety percent of clients have gone,\u201d said a waiter, Omar Benabdallah, 25, surveying a pavement\u2019s worth of empty tables on the \u00cele de la Cit\u00e9.<\/p>\n

But the French authorities insist the disruption will be both brief \u2013 many of the barricades along the Seine will be removed after Friday\u2019s opening ceremony \u2013 and worthwhile, with the world treated to a spectacular show celebrating Paris\u2019s history and beauty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Residents must deal with a baffling number of road closures in the French capital<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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\u201cI wouldn\u2019t describe it as a nightmare. We\u2019re focused, and determined,\u201d said Gen Lionel Catar with a half-smile. He\u2019s responsible for coordinating the work of some 5,500 French troops brought into the capital.<\/p>\n

Gen Catar acknowledged the \u201cexceptional\u201d scale of the Olympic and Paralympic security operation but explained that it had evolved out of France\u2019s pre-existing Op\u00e9ration Sentinelle, a decade-old response to a string of deadly attacks by Islamist groups and individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have demining teams. We have dog teams. There are anti-drone systems, radars, and divers patrolling the River Seine,\u201d said Gen Catar.<\/p>\n

The decision to move the operational headquarters from the outskirts of Paris to the grand, sprawling, \u201c\u00c9cole Militaire,\u201d behind the Eiffel Tower was based on advice from UK police following their experience of the 2012 London Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think their headquarters were a bit far from the city centre. They advised us to be close to the politicians in charge and to the police,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gen Lionel Catar says there are drone, dog and diving teams protecting Paris for the Olympics<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Some 250 British officers \u2013 and 50 police dogs – will be in France over the coming weeks, with some joining French foot patrols around the centre of Paris. They are among 1,750 foreign police from dozens of countries taking part in the operation, including Spain, Germany, South Korea and Qatar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re envisaging nearly half a million UK citizens coming to enjoy the Games. It\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve been able to deploy officers to a major event [abroad] in this way,\u201d said Chief Superintendent Matt Lawler, head of the National Police Coordination Centre.<\/p>\n

There has also been direct military cooperation between France and the UK on anti-drone technology, particularly during the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

French officials say there have been no specific threats made towards the Games, but that they\u2019re concerned about \u201cmilitarised terrorism\u201d \u2013 either from abroad or within France. They\u2019re also focused on the risk of cyber-attacks that could target ticketing systems and other infrastructure. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Central Paris is emptier than usual in the run-up to Friday<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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In recent months the government has expressed growing anger at what it believes is a Kremlin-backed online campaign to raise exaggerated fears about security for \u2013 and about French preparedness at – the Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterference and distortion of information is not only being carried out by Russia, but also by other countries that we\u2019re watching closely. We\u2019re not na\u00efve. We\u2019re hoping an Olympic truce will be observed\u2026. by all countries,\u201d said Gerald Darmanin, France\u2019s interior minister.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, French police arrested a Russian man<\/a> suspected of plotting acts of \u201cdestabilisation\u201d during the Games.<\/p>\n

Earlier on the same day, on the outskirts of Paris, an elite squad of French police carried out another rehearsal for a hostage situation onboard a bus. Amid gunfire and loud explosions, the unit \u2013 the same to have responded to the 2015 Bataclan attack \u2013 rescued civilian actors trapped inside the bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re feeling impatient. We\u2019ve spent more than two years preparing for these Games. Let\u2019s hope we will not have to take any action,\u201d said the unit\u2019s commander, Simon Riondet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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BBC French authorities are staging an unprecedented security operation for the opening ceremony A scrum of disappointed tourists stared, wistfully, through the maze of metal fences lining the River Seine. Ahead of them, Notre Dame cathedral and other Parisian treasures lay, tantalisingly, out of reach. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a code,\u201d said a woman from Mexico, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4887,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4885\/revisions\/4887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}