PARIS.- The special anti-terrorist measures that will be used to safeguard the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games on the Seine River will also extend to all buildings along the route, so people who work and live there and their guests will be subject to security background checks, the chief said Thursday. of the city police, Laurent Núñez.
Those affected will be reviewed with the databases of the security services, to check if they have been previously identified as alleged Islamic extremists or radicals.
In something unprecedented in Olympic history, athletes will parade in the July 26 ceremony through the heart of the French capital, doing so in 94 boats that will travel a stretch of 6 kilometers (almost 4 miles) of the Seine. They will be accompanied by 87 other security vessels, media and other people.
The entire parade route will be within a high-security zone described as an “anti-terrorist perimeter,†which will be secured starting July 18.
Anyone who wants to enter the area in the eight days before the ceremony and on July 26 must register in advance online.
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Among those affected are also people who go to hotels or restaurants within the area. In the days beforehand there will be places to cross the river and ways to visit the Louvre and other museums.
Anyone flagged by the controls could be excluded from the area.
The prefect of the Paris region, Marc Guillaume, noted that the 36 samples that will be collected on the quality of water in the Seine from July 1, and its tributary, the Marne, will be made public .
Marathon swimmers, Olympic and Paralympic triathletes are scheduled to compete in the river, which is being cleaned for the Games.
