By Julien Pretot
PARIS (Reuters) – As Paris makes final preparations for the Summer Olympics, the grand opening ceremony along the river Seine on Friday has created an unprecedented security challenge that organisers hope won’t dampen the party vibe.
For the first time, a Games opening ceremony will not take place in a stadium. Instead, dozens of boats will carry thousands of athletes and performers on a 6-km (3.7-mile) floating parade down the Seine, showcasing the beauty and history of the French capital.
More than 300,000 people are expected to line both banks of the river to watch the ceremony – along with 45,000 police, including members of France’s elite special intervention forces trained in counterterrorism.
Snipers will be deployed on the top of buildings along the route and an anti-drone system will be in place.
“There’s a balance to be found between top security, which is absolutely the priority,” Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 organising committee, told a press conference on Sunday.
“It’s part of the objective to guarantee the security and to propose a fantastic celebration of the Games… But to have this kind of unique celebration, you also need to have a very, very strong security plan. And that’s the case.”
The ceremony, which will start at 7:30 p.m. local time(1730 GMT), will be “a large fresco” celebrating Paris, France and the Games and will interweave the traditional parade by athletes with artistic performances and elements of protocol, said Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the opening ceremony.
With wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and security concerns at home, France is already at its highest level of security. The crowds set to descend on Paris will be in marked contrast to the atmosphere of the last Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 which played to empty arenas, and a year later than scheduled, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
French officials have said there are no specific terrorism threats for the ceremony that will launch the Games in Paris, which run until Aug. 11.
However, should specific concerns arise, there are backup plans, that would either see the ceremony restricted to the Trocadero square near the Eiffel tower, or switched to the Stade de France stadium.
(Additional reporting by Cecile Matovani and Ingrid Melander; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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