By Kurt Hall
PARIS (Reuters) – Some 45,000 police will secure the Paris Olympics’ July 26 opening ceremony, with over 100 heads of state and government set to attend, a senior official said on Wednesday, adding no changes were planned after the weekend attack on Donald Trump.
The ceremony, staged for the first time outside a stadium, will involve around 80 boats ferrying international athletes on a six km (3.7 mile) route along the river Seine towards the Eiffel Tower, said the official, Lambis Konstantinidis.
Athletes and performers will sail past some of the French capital’s most stunning landmarks. But, with more than 300,000 spectators expected to watch, it is also a major security headache, especially at a time of war in Gaza and Ukraine.
“It’s a six km route, so it’s a huge perimeter to monitor. That’s why we need that many (security) people,” Konstantinidis, the Games’ head of planning and coordination, told reporters.
“Our security plans are very dynamic. They always take into consideration the latest events and try to adapt,” he said during a tour of the Games’ security headquarters, adding that they were in close contact with counterparts abroad.
Last Saturday’s assassination attempt against former U.S. president Trump at an election rally in Pennsylvania has not changed the security plans for the Games, Konstantinidis said.
“We have very close collaboration with the U.S. security services and its secret service. So we are sharing also any information we have,” Konstantinidis said. “We’re very confident that we’re on the same page but we have not had to change any of our plans as a result of that very unfortunate incident.”
More than 100 people will be working around the clock at the Games’ security headquarters in Saint-Denis, just outside Paris, he said.
Conflict abroad and security concerns at home led the French government earlier this year to raise its security alert to its highest level.
A man was arrested in May in the French town of Saint-Etienne, suspected of planning an attack in the name of Islamic State at the city’s soccer stadium during the Olympics.
(Reporting by Kurt Hall; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Comments