2024-05-14 07:22:12
Since the Olympic flame arrived yesterday Marseillesin France one of the largest and most detailed security operations in its history was officially launched, based on some possible threats or terrorist attacksin view of the celebration of the Olympic Games, whose opening ceremony will be next July 26.
“From May 8 to September 10, there is no turning back,” said a senior official from the Ministry of the Interior. Interior, which holds almost daily meetings ahead of the Olympic Games.
“The first part of this challenge was the arrival of the Olympic flame on the sailboat White, with a device of six thousand members of the security forces. Such a large security device has never been seen in Marseille, said the mayor Benoit Payan.
For his part, the minister of Interior Gérald Darmanin He said that “the members of the Gendarmerie will be in proximity to the flame at all times.”
For the security operation, there will be 115 police and gendarmes, who will protect the flame throughout its entire route and to which a hundred mobile forces will be added. All this with the aim of preventing a terrorist attack, as in 2008, when the flame passed through the French capital, prior to the Beijing Games, there were protesters who denounced the policy of China in Tibet; For this reason the tour had to stop.
Now the flame will embark on a 12,000-kilometer journey that will take it through more than 400 locations in the country before reaching Paris.
In the event of a terrorist attack, it is the GIGN, the elite unit of the Gendarmerie, the one that must intervene. Its members will be “at all times” in “proximity” to the flame, Darmanin explained.
For the welcome party, some 7,000 law enforcement agents, including snipers and canine units, secured the Old Port of Marseille, a stress test for the organizers of the Games, with France in its maximum state of security alert in a complex geopolitical context.
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2024-05-14 07:22:12