PARIS: France will deploy 35,000 security agents and the military to secure the 2024 Olympic Games opening ceremony, a river parade through the heart of Paris, from security threats including drone strikes, the interior minister said on Tuesday.

Hundreds of thousands of spectators are expected to line the Seine river along the 6km route to watch the national delegations sail in a flotilla of boats from the Austerlitz Bridge to the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

Following a Covid-hit Tokyo Games held behind closed doors, Paris promises a sporting spectacle open to the masses but faces multiple security risks, from strikes conducted with drones and cyberattacks to climate activists and anti-government protesters.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said reinforcements would come from the Defence Ministry. France’s military is tasked with leading the country’s defences against drone attacks.

“Drones represent a totally new threat. We’ve done a lot of work on the classic threat, whether it’s delinquents, whether it is a person armed with a weapon, a bomb, whatever that bomb… We know how to detect and combat this threat,” Darmanin told a press conference.

“The arrival of drones loaded with explosives in the theatre of civilian operations is new. There is no certainty this threat will materialise, but it is the hardest to stop.”

Darmanin said the government would be asking police forces elsewhere in Europe to step up their intelligence sharing of individuals who might pose a terrorism threat to prevent them arriving on French soil.

He said France had also asked the European Commission it be allowed to reinstate border controls during the Olympics and this year’s Rugby World Cup for people arriving from countries within the passport-free Schengen Area, which allows the unrestricted movement of people.

The European Commission would no doubt grant France its request but Paris was still awaiting a response, the minister continued.

Reuters revealed that Paris 2024 organisers have been planning to install the Olympic flame on the Eiffel Tower, although not atop the monument.

Darmanin said he expected more than 600,000 people would attend the Games’ launch event, including 100,000 who will be paying up to 2,700 euros each for a seat on the river’s lower banks.

Spectators will be able to see holograms on the water, dancers on the roofs of nearby buildings and aerial shows.

“We know that the planet’s biggest event will attract a lot of people who want to party, and then without a doubt some others who want to spoil the party,” said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

FREE TICKETS PLEDGED FOR OPENING CEREMONY

Meanwhile, Paris 2024 organisers said hundreds of thousands of people will be able to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics for free, amid ongoing criticism about the price of tickets.

The final figure for the number of people who will be granted tickets for the vast and ambitious outdoor opening ceremony along the river Seine is still under discussion.

“Hundreds of thousands,” Darm­anin told a press conference when asked about the number of people. “It will depend on the weather and the publicity you do for it.”

Around 100,000 tickets will be sold for exclusive river-side positions, with organisers initially saying another 500,000 would be given an opportunity to watch from higher positions on roads above the Seine.

Athletes are set to sail down the river in a flotilla of 115 boats, the first time the opening ceremony for the Olympics has taken place outside of the athletics stadium.

“With its open and public nature, this ceremony will enable hundreds of thousands of people to see it for free,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told the same press conference with Darmanin and Games chief Tony Estanguet.

With demand far outstripping supply, Paris 2024 organisers have faced a stream of criticism online and even from some athletes over the price of tickets, which first went on sale in February and March.

A second release, which began on May 11, has led to outrage over prices as high as 2,700 euros ($2900) for the paying positions for the opening ceremony.

“I’m not even sure that my family will be able to come to see me, it’s so expensive,” Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam, a two-time Olympic heptathlon champion, told Belgian media DH recently.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2023