One of the biggest security challenges facing the organisers of the Games in the French capital is to protect the opening ceremony on 26 July. It is planned to be an unprecedented, open-air extravaganza, which for the first time will not take place within a stadium, but will instead involve a flotilla of 94 boats carrying thousands of waving athletes down a 6km stretch of the Seine, followed by a further 80 boats carrying media and security, while an estimated 222,000 people gather along the river's edge and 200,000 more watch from buildings.
More than 45,000 police will be mobilised, with snipers on rooftops. Airspace will be shut down within a 150km radius during the ceremony, as the security services prepare for the potential threat of drone attacks.
This story is from the April 05, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the April 05, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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