According to statements by the military governor of Paris, some 5,000 soldiers will be housed in tents in the heart of the French capital, on the Reuilly lawn, during the Olympic Games. On the other hand, the number of soldiers deployed to reinforce the police and gendarmerie personnel was not specified.
Some 5,000 soldiers will be housed in tents in the heart of Paris, on the Reuilly lawn, during the Olympic Games, for which they will help ensure security, in order to ensure their responsiveness, the military governor of Paris said on Wednesday. On this vast esplanade located in the east of Paris and which usually hosts the Throne Fair, “we are going to set up a camp of around 5,000 men which has the uniqueness of being extremely close to the heart of Paris”, declared General Christophe Abad, during a round table devoted to the security of the Games organized as part of the Milipol exhibition, dedicated to the internal security of States.
“The proximity between parking locations and deployment locations is a strategic issue which carries within it the challenge of the mobility and reactivity of our forces,” he explained.
Nearly 15,000 soldiers deployed during the Games
The number of soldiers who will be deployed to reinforce the police and gendarmerie staff and compensate for probable shortages of private security agents during the Olympic period has not been specified. There could be nearly 15,000, according to observers. To accommodate them, General Abad recalled the existence of “around fifteen barracks in Ile-de-France” used in particular to house soldiers deployed as part of Operation Sentinel.
This operation, launched in 2015 after the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, allows the deployment of up to 7,000 soldiers to secure public spaces against the risk of attack. Some 30,000 police officers and gendarmes must be mobilized every day, as well as 17,000 private security agents during the Olympic and Paralympic period, which runs from July 26 to September 8.