Terrorist threat: as the Paris 2024 Olympics approach, the Raid is training for the scenario of a “mass killing”

Le Raid se prépare à toute situation en vue des JO. ILLUSTRATION MAXPPP – BAZIZ CHIBANE

Alors que les Jeux olympiques se dérouleront à Paris du 26 juillet au 11 août prochain, la question de la sécurité est au cœur des préoccupations des Français.

Sheltered behind the "Black Wolf", the Raid's state-of-the-art 9-ton armored vehicle, a column of men in black, helmeted and armed, is slowly progressing towards the Draveil police school (Essonne), scene last week of a simulation of a life-size terrorist attack.

An hour earlier, four hooded assailants equipped with assault rifles entered the main building of the site, the former Château des Bergeries built at the end of the 19th century, including the former Château des Bergeries built at the end of the 19th century. usual tranquility is suddenly drowned out by tear gas and the noise of grenades.

When the Raid alert team arrives from its base at Bièvres, located around thirty kilometers away, intermediate units – the departmental intervention companies (CDI) of Yvelines and Essonne – have already taken over the premises.

A scenario worked on at least once a year

A "brief" is organized at the improvised crisis PC (command post) in the school parking lot. Site map in hand, Captain Romain, responsible for the column, transmits to his team leaders the latest information collected by the first responder police officers: the location of the attackers still alive, the number of victims and hostages.

A member of a CDI, the "pilot fish", slips among the men of the Raid to guide them in their assault. "The idea is to work on interoperability between all the (police) services and the firefighters", also involved in this "mass killing" quot;, explains Major Stéphane who directs operations.

If the Raid did not wait for the Olympic Games to train to face this scenario, worked at least once a year in real conditions, the possibility of an attack from ;rsquo;magnitude during the Olympic fortnight is on everyone’s minds. Two hundred members of the elite unit will be mobilized every day, including a hundred during the very sensitive opening ceremony on the Seine.

The attack in Moscow, claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) and which left 137 dead, served as a reminder of the scenes of horror experienced by France during the attacks of November 13 or July 14, 2016 in Nice can be repeated. The Director General of Internal Security Céline Berthon spoke on March 5, before the Senate, of “terrorist organizations which target the West and without a doubt, in the As the event approaches, they will seize the opportunity that the Olympic Games represent.

"Ripe material"

As they progress through the school, the elite unit discovers a spectacle of desolation with several bodies – student police officers – littering a floor stained with fake blood, in the hall and up to the top of the spiral staircase leading to the attic.

Behind a door, at the end of a corridor, an assailant is holding around fifteen hostages. A video link was established with Raid negotiators in training, housed in a room two floors down. After failing to obtain surrender, intervention is triggered.

A wired camera with a swivel head is slipped under the door to ensure that the attacker is not in ambush. Then, thanks to a clever rope system, the "break-in" manages to open the door silently and out of range of gunfire. "Tango n° 4", designating the fourth terrorist, is finally "neutralized" and his captives released unharmed.

"The most oiled system possible"

Simultaneously, a final "hostile" sows death in the dormitories. The bawling of children, who are really enjoying themselves in the playground of a neighboring primary school, give the scene a surreal atmosphere. At the entrance to the building, the "drone operator" of the team activates its aircraft, the images of which are transmitted live on its controller covered with buttons.

Once assured that access to the passageways is "clear", free of any immediate threat, the column begins, accompanied by "Patton" quot;, a Belgian shepherd specializing in assault. The attacker was finally killed after an exchange of fire. "Finex", end of the financial year.

"This is a repeat. We do this kind of exercise very regularly (since the attacks of 2015, Editor's note) so that the system is as oiled as possible and there, it went perfectly well, rejoices Pierre , deputy head of the Raid’s operational support section. "This is a matter which is now ripe in the national police and which comes at the right time to manage the Olympics."