Terrorism, cyber attacks are main Paris 2024 threats as security plan finalised

PARIS – Terrorism and cyber attacks are the two main risks the 2024 Paris Olympics face, with a highly exposed opening ceremony a concern, but organisers are confident they will be ready to take on the challenge.

Paris 2024 is launching the third of four waves of tenders for private security, which will result in the presence of 17,000-22,000 agents a day – including 2,000 for the opening ceremony, which will be a long parade on the Seine river attended by possibly 600,000 people.

Some 30,000 police officers and soldiers will also be mobilised to secure the surroundings on July 26.

“For the opening ceremony, there is a specific protocol with the state and the Paris City Hall. We’re confident that we’re on track, that we will reach our goals,” Paris 2024 security director Bruno le Ray said on Nov 23.

He added that the security budget of €320 million (S$468 million) was unchanged.

“The first risk is the terrorist risk. We’ve integrated it, unfortunately, in all security plans,” added Thomas Collomb, security executive director for Paris 2024.

He was deputy head of safety and security for official sites at the Euro 2016 in France seven months after the November 2015 Islamist attacks, which involved a simultaneous assault by gunmen and suicide bombers on entertainment venues and cafes in Paris.

“Since 2015, the terrorist risk is being taken into account. Cyber threat is the other main risk,” said Collomb.

“Drones are also a subject, with armies facing that risk for a while now. It has been in the security plan for the Games since 2019.”

Last week, Paris 2024 called for vigilance after French security services said they had uncovered a disinformation campaign emanating from Azerbaijan that aimed to undermine the French capital’s capacity to hold the event.

In January, France’s top audit body warned that the opening ceremony on the Seine river posed a “major challenge”, highlighting concerns around a reliance on private security operators to protect the Games.

Le Ray, who was Paris’ military governor at the time of the 2015 Paris attacks, said the private security market was “tense”, with an estimated shortage of 20,000 agents nationwide, but insisted the recruitment process through tenders was “on time”.

Meanwhile, Brittany Jacobs, sport management department chair at American Public University System, also questioned the opening ceremony situation.

“The opening ceremony is the biggest event from a security perspective we’ve seen in a long time in Europe,” she said.

“There will always be something that goes wrong but the question is are you ready for it? There are concerns about drones, terrorist groups, something inevitably will go wrong whenever you have an event like this in open space.”

Jacobs, however, believes organisers are nowadays “more prepared” than in 1996, when one person was killed and 111 others injured in the Atlanta Olympic Park bombing during the Games.

“The risks and rewards are both potentially really high. We will be talking about it (the Paris opening ceremony) for decades,” she added.

On less serious issues, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has said that the city will not be fully ready for the Olympics and Paralympics in terms of transport.

“There will be places where (public) transport will not be ready because there will not be enough trains and not frequently enough,” she said, in thinly veiled criticism of Paris region president Valerie Pecresse.

The Ile-de-France (Paris region) Regional Council, led by right-winger Pecresse, is in charge of transportation in the region.

Socialist Hidalgo, who felt that the government was also “a little bit” responsible for the situation, said the RER (regional express train) station at Porte Maillot in western Paris would not be ready for the July 26-Aug 11 Games.

However, Pecresse insisted on social media platform X: “We will be ready. It’s a huge collective effort that shouldn’t be denigrated by an absent mayor.” REUTERS