Vast Olympic security operation descends on central Paris

Police are locking down large swaths of Paris ahead of the Olympic Games, as France wrestles with one of its biggest security challenges.

The heightened vigilance comes as wars in Ukraine and Gaza increase the potential for repercussions in France, which has suffered deadly Islamist militant attacks.

With the bulk of events taking place in temporary venues in Europe’s most densely populated capital, the risks are complex. A riverbound opening- night extravaganza on Friday — the first such ceremony outside a stadium — will show the scale of what Paris is attempting to achieve, with about 80 boats carrying athletes along the Seine, flanked by some 320,000 spectators and residential buildings on both sides.

Measures include a 6km central perimeter that has made the riverbanks accessible only to preregistered guests who will undergo body searches. Bomb squads will comb the Seine’s bridges, many of which will be closed. Military units will occupy rooftops to combat possible drone strikes.

France is also braced for potential cyber attacks, including from Russian hackers, which target forces’ command infrastructure or hospital systems. 

“It will be an unprecedented and complicated security challenge,” Bruno Le Ray, a former soldier and head of security for the Paris 2024 committee, said of the €320mn-€350mn operation. 

But Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez, in a joint interview with other newspapers, said: “We’re serene, because we have a robust framework, and it’s ready.”

Nuñez was appointed two years ago shortly after the chaotic scenes at a Champions League football final in Paris, when crowds built up outside the Stade de France, fans were targeted by thieves and police responded with tear gas. Officials insist they have learned from the debacle.  

In recent weeks police have made hundreds of raids targeting people on their watch lists, detaining a number of Islamists and far-right and far-left activists, Nuñez said.

Attacks on French’s Jewish community have risen since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October: France registered four times as many antisemitic acts in the first three months of 2024 compared with the same period last year.

At least two planned attacks on the Olympics have been thwarted, according to police and prosecutors, including an alleged plot by a Chechen against a football venue. 

The assassination attempt on US presidential candidate Donald Trump also offers a stark reminder of the importance of avoiding security failures. 

Russia’s cyber threat is also a “massive concern”, according to an official from the US state’s department’s diplomatic security service, highlighting an attack during the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea that disrupted TV and internet services. In a reminder of broader cyber risks, businesses from airlines to financial services were last week jolted by a global IT outage.

Russian athletes are banned from competing under the country’s flag because of doping violations and Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, meaning “the Russians have 10 times more reason now to attack the Games . . . it’s no secret that they’re going to try and inflict some kind of damage on the Olympics”, the official said. 

Still, the official added, French authorities are threading the needle between beefed-up security and “allowing Paris to be Paris . . . They’ve made [the Olympics] a hard target, but they’ve done it with a velvet glove.” 

France has worked with foreign intelligence and security services, especially in the US and Israel, Nuñez said. Security forces visited the US to assess operations for New Year’s Eve in New York and last year’s Super Bowl, the DSS official said. 

About 30,000 police, increasing to a record 45,000 deployment at peak times, will work on the four-week Olympics and Paralympics across the Ile-de-France region covering Paris. They will be supplemented by at least 15,000 French military personnel and some 1,800 foreign police officials, including UK officers and specialist search dogs.

Critics say the Paris 2024 venue choices increased the demands on an already overstretched police force, with many officers having to cancel leave.

“There are big security efforts being made . . . to limit the effect of these political decisions. But we could have avoided piling risks on top of the risks,” said Alain Bauer, a professor of criminology and a security expert who worked on the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

Bauer believes the decision to use the Seine for the opening ceremony, which was originally envisaged to host 600,000 spectators, is a “criminal folly”. 

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is dealing with political turmoil after inconclusive legislative elections led to a caretaker government, has said there are back-up plans for the opening ceremony, in case major threats were detected.

Police are also on high alert for political demonstrations linked to the elections, as well as disruptions from environmental and other activists. 

One delegate from the more than 200 nations descending on Paris queried whether residents’ apartments overlooking the Seine would be systematically searched. However, Nuñez said “we’re not allowed to do it”, adding that warrants could be obtained if needed.

The security measures have already prompted many residents to flee Paris in a bid to avoid the disruptions and detours required to navigate the city. In the locked-down perimeter, shops and restaurants were practically deserted as the flow of passers-by dried up. 

“What’s taken up most of my energy has been trying to manage traffic linked to the Games and circulation,” Nuñez said. “The hardest thing was to find a balance between security and people’s daily lives.”