© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A view reveals the River Seine with the Conciergerie and the Pont Notre-Dame bridge by night time in Paris, France, October 25, 2023. Image taken with an extended publicity. REUTERS/Abdul Saboor/File Picture
PARIS (Reuters) – France is ready to maneuver the 2024 Olympic opening ceremony from the River Seine to a different location ought to the safety scenario require it, President Emmanuel Macron mentioned on Wednesday.
“Given we’re professionals, there obviously is a Plan B, Plan C, et cetera,” Macron informed France 5 tv when requested if the safety scenario – at the moment marked by heightened alert throughout Europe over tensions within the Center East – may thwart plans to carry the ceremony as deliberate.
Macron mentioned he was in opposition to “doomsaying” and altering plans unexpectedly, however added a Plan B might be triggered if “the level of insecurity requires us to revisit the initial scheme” with out offering particulars.
European safety officers have warned of a rising danger of assaults by Islamist militants amid the Israel-Hamas battle, with the largest risk doubtless from “lone wolf” assailants who’re arduous to trace. France raised its safety threshold in October, when a person with a knife killed a instructor in a faculty in northern France.
Earlier this month, the nation’s sports activities minister dominated out a change of plans after a person armed with a knife and hammer killed a German vacationer and left two individuals wounded close to the Eiffel Tower, saying “this not something we’re working with.”
France expects some 600,000 guests when 160 boats are as a result of set off on July 26 from the Pont d’Austerlitz for a 6-kilometre (3.7-mile) journey to the Pont d’Iena, a bridge in Paris.
