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About 2,000 foreign troops to help France secure Paris Olympics

Some 2,000 foreign troops and police will be sent to Paris to bolster security for this summer's Olympic Games as France remains on high alert following attack threats, the French armed forces minister said Friday.

Published: 13 April 2024 08:35 CEST

Pedestrians walk past closed-off construction works with the Eiffel Tower in the background at the Champ-de-Mars that will host the beach volleyball competition event during the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic

Pedestrians walk past closed-off construction works with the Eiffel Tower in the background at the Champ-de-Mars that will host the beach volleyball competition event during the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris on April 12, 2024. (Photo by EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP)

“We have something like 2,000 foreign police officers, gendarmes and troops who will be joining the protection system for the Olympic Games,” Sebastien Lecornu told all-news television station LCI.

France, which will host the games from July 26 to August 11, has raised its security alert to the highest level after a Moscow concert hall attack claimed at least 144 lives on March 22. The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the massacre.

The minister said the reinforcements would provide “specific functions” in short supply, including dog handlers, horse riders and mounted patrols.

READ ALSO: Factcheck: Which areas will be closed in Paris during the Olympics?

In late March, Poland said it would supply troops with an emphasis on sniffer dogs for bomb detection and counter-terrorism operations. It did not specify the number of troops.

Nearly 45,000 police officers and gendarmes will be mobilised in the Paris region for the opening ceremony July 26, which in breaking with tradition will be held along the Seine River instead of the main stadium.

During the games themselves, 18,000 French military troops will be deployed, including 3,000 responsible for aerial surveillance — in addition to about 35,000 police and gendarmes.

READ ALSO: Paris bosses ‘confident’ that Seine will be clean enough for Olympic events

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Olympic torch sets sail at start of its voyage to France

“The feelings are so exceptional. It’s such an emotion for me”, Tony Estanguet, Paris Olympics chief organiser, told reporters before the departure of the ship from Piraeus.

He hailed the “great coincidence” how the Belem was launched just weeks after the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896.

“These games mean a lot. It’s been a centenary since the last time we organised the Olympic games in our country,” he added.

The 19th-century three-masted boat set sail on a calm sea but under cloudy skies.

It was accompanied off the port of Piraeus by the trireme Olympias of the Greek Navy and 25 sailing boats while dozens of people watched behind railings for security reasons.

“We came here so that the children understand that the Olympic ideal was born in Greece. I’m really moved,” Giorgos Kontopoulos, who watched the ship starting its voyage with his two children, told AFP.

On Sunday, the ship will pass from the Corinth Canal — a feat of 19th century engineering constructed with the contribution of French banks and engineers.

‘More responsible Games’

The Belem is set to reach Marseille — where a Greek colony was founded in around 600 BCE — on May 8.

Over 1,000 vessels will accompany its approach to the harbour, local officials have said.

French swimmer Florent Manaudou will be the first torch bearer in Marseille. His sister Laure was the second torch bearer in ancient Olympia, where the flame was lit on April 16.

Ten thousand torchbearers will then carry the flame across 64 French territories.

It will travel through more than 450 towns and cities, and dozens of tourist attractions during its 12,000-kilometre (7,500-mile) journey through mainland France and overseas French territories in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific.

It will then reach Paris and be the centre piece of the hugely imaginative and new approach to the Games opening ceremony.

Instead of the traditional approach of parading through the athletics stadium at the start of the Games, teams are set to sail down the Seine on a flotilla of boats in front of up to 500,000 spectators, including people watching from nearby buildings.

The torch harks back to the ancient Olympics when a sacred flame burned throughout the Games. The tradition was revived in 1936 for the Berlin Games.

Greece on Friday had handed over the Olympic flame of the 2024 Games, at a ceremony, to Estanguet.

Hellenic Olympic Committee chairman Spyros Capralos handed the torch to Estanguet at the Panathenaic Stadium, where the Olympics were held in 1896.

Estanguet said the goal for Paris was to organise “spectacular but also more responsible Games, which will contribute towards a more inclusive society.”

Organisers want to ensure “the biggest event in the world plays an accelerating role in addressing the crucial questions of our time,” said Estanguet, a member of France’s Athens 2004 Olympics team who won gold in the slalom canoe event.

A duo of French champions, Beijing 2022 ice dance gold medallist Gabriella Papadakis and former swimmer Beatrice Hess, one of the most successful Paralympians in history, carried the flame during the final relay leg into the Panathenaic Stadium.

Nana Mouskouri, the 89-year-old Greek singer with a worldwide following, sang the French and Greek anthems at the ceremony.

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