France prepares missiles and SAS fighter jets to secure Olympics | UK | News

Surface-to-air missiles and SAS-type units focused on eliminating terrorists were deployed today as part of a £350 million security operation for the start of the Paris Olympics.

Groups such as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula – which wreaked death and destruction on the streets of France in 2015 – have warned they will target high-profile events in France this year, including the Olympics.

The largest peacetime deployment of forces in French history was finalized yesterday ahead of tonight’s opening ceremony on the Seine. One of the military planners, General Lionel Catar, said: “We are focused and we are ready.”

He added that some 75,000 military, police and private security personnel would be on duty. All are ready to protect the competitors who will travel down the Seine aboard 80 barges on Friday night, in front of some 350,000 spectators. Among them, VIP guests such as Celine Dion and Lady Gaga, who will both perform.

The elite National Gendarmerie Intervention Group is on alert, providing equipment ranging from rooftop snipers to helicopter-borne rapid intervention teams. A no-fly zone has been declared in the Paris metropolitan area for all other aircraft, and mobile weapons systems in place include 12 units of new-generation Crotale short-range air defense missiles.

Developed in France, this system is specially designed to protect sites from air threats. The missiles have a range of about eleven kilometers and travel at three and a half times the speed of sound.

Commanders at Avord, France’s second-largest air base, south of Paris, will coordinate the “air protection bubble.” It will also include four alert planes dedicated to air policing. They will be operational for at least 12 hours on Friday to detect threats.

Divers were seen combing the Seine for explosives yesterday morning, while drones and a surveillance helicopter buzzed overhead. Sniffer dogs also searched the banks and streets of the Seine. Gérald Darmanin, the French interior minister, said that “the terrorist threat remains high” and that a “high level of vigilance” was essential.

Around 250 British police officers and 50 police dogs will be in France during the Olympics, with some joining French foot patrols in Paris. British Police Commissioner Matt Lawler said: “We expect around half a million British citizens to come and enjoy the Games.”