PARIS (AP) — To secure the unprecedented opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on the Seine, special anti-terrorism measures are being introduced that will also apply to all buildings along the route, meaning the people who work and live there and their guests Background security checks have been carried out, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said on Thursday.
Those affected would be checked against the security services’ databases to determine whether they had previously been flagged as suspected Islamist extremists or for other radicalism, Nunez said.
The extremely ambitious ceremony on July 26th is proving to be a gigantic security challenge. The athletes will be taken through the heart of the French capital on 94 boats, traveling along a 6-kilometer stretch of the Seine from east to west. They are accompanied by 87 other boats for security, media and other people.
The entire parade route will run within a high-security zone, which Nunez described as an “anti-terrorism perimeter.” He said it will include the first row of buildings along the route.
“We wanted to include all the buildings that have a view of the parade in the perimeter,” Nunez said.
The zone will be established from July 18th and will be further expanded along both river banks on July 26th, in the final hours before the evening ceremony.
Anyone wishing to enter the zone in the eight days before the ceremony and on July 26 itself must pre-register online and will be “systematically” subjected to the background security checks known in France as an “administrative investigation,” Nunez said.
Those affected would include people who work and live within the zone, as well as their guests and people who visit hotels or restaurants within the zone, he said.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said about 20,000 people live and work inside the perimeter. In the days leading up to the ceremony, there will be opportunities to cross the river and visit the Louvre and other museums along the river without having to enter the security zone.
Nunez said the security clearance for those affected will not include a search of their communications. “It’s not that intrusive,” he said.
“We check whether the person is known in a certain number of intelligence files,” he said.
Anyone flagged by the controls may be excluded from the zone. “It will obviously be on a case-by-case basis,” Nunez said.
Ticket holders for the ceremony do not need to pre-register on the online platform, which opens on May 10. However, Nunez said that French intelligence services could also carry out checks on them.
Separately, the Paris region’s top administrative official, Prefect Marc Guillaume, promised that tests on water quality in the Seine would be made public, without specifying when and how regularly.
Marathon swimmers and Olympic and Paralympic triathletes are scheduled to compete in the river, which is being cleaned for the Games. From July 1, samples will be taken from 36 locations on the river and its tributary, the Marne, said Guillaume.
“We will be completely transparent about our findings,” he said.
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