Paralympic Games: Gérald Darmanin announces that there will be up to 25,000 police officers and gendarmes mobilized to ensure security

There will be up to 25,000 police officers mobilized for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. MAXPPP

Up to 25,000 police officers and gendarmes will be mobilized to ensure security during the Paris Paralympic Games from August 28 to September 8, the resigning Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, announced on Tuesday.

"The peak will be at 25,000 law enforcement officers in the Ile-de-France region and in Châteauroux", where the shooting events will take place, the minister said at a press conference. “We will have the support of the three intervention forces” (BRI, Raid, GIGN), with 300 personnel, and “10,000 private security agents” , added the minister, stressing that at this stage there was no “characterized threat” aiming at these Games.

Security "provided in the same way as the Olympic Games"

Security for sensitive delegations, including Israel, "will be provided in the same way as the Olympic Games", assured Mr. Darmanin, with a total of 27 athletes, 2 referees and the president of the Paralympic Committee who will be "protected in permanence".

Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris Games organizing committee, welcomed the decision to maintain “the level of mobilization to ensure security from the Paralympic Games torch relay”.

Few public transportation options remain accessible to people with disabilities

The opening ceremony of the Paralympics will take place on August 28 at Place de la Concorde, again under the leadership of artistic director Thomas Jolly. The Swede Alexander Ekman was chosen to choreograph the whole thing, surrounded in particular by 150 dancers, including about twenty with disabilities.

These Paralympic Games take place in a context of the start of the school year and the resumption of political life in France, which is awaiting the formation of a new government. While in Paris, public transport, particularly the metro – old and inaccessible –, remain a black spot for the reception of people with disabilities, the resigning Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castera assured that “more than 65 stations were accessible”.