By Le Figaro with AFP
Posted 3 hours ago, Updated 2 hours ago
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The opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games will take place at Place de la Concorde on Wednesday, August 28. Police Prefect Laurent Nuñez reminded everyone that there will be traffic bans on that day.
Traffic in the centre of Paris mainly will be “complicated” August 28, the day of the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games which will take place at Place de la Concorde, police prefect Laurent Nuñez warned on Friday.
During a press conference to present the security measures for the Paralympic Games (August 28 – September 8) in the presence of the president of the Cojo Tony Estanguet, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and Pierre Rabadan, responsible for sports and the Olympic Games at the city hall, Laurent Nuñez explained that part of the anti-terrorist security perimeter closed to traffic would be activated from 7:00 a.m., and the whole area at 2:00 p.m.
“Limiting gauges”
50,000 people are expected for this ceremony: 35,000 spectators in the stands at Place de la Concorde, including nearly 5,000 athletes and 170 Olympic delegations, and 15,000 free places open to the public at the bottom of the Champs-Élysées, on both sides of the avenue. Concerning the free-access boxes, the police prefect specified that they would be open to the public at 5:00 p.m. “We expect a craze. The gauges are limiting”warned Laurent Nuñez, recommending to come as soon as it opens. Searches and pat-downs will be carried out by the police at the entry points (three in total), he said.
In order to watch the ceremony on giant screens, the Paris city hall will open 17 zones set up in various locations in the capital. The anti-terrorist protection perimeter will be extended during the opening ceremony to the Tuileries Gardens, which will host the cauldron, which will rise into the Parisian sky in the evening. The police prefecture expects a very large crowd at this site. The public will have to submit to searches or frisking to get there.
4,400 athletes will compete over 11 days of competition and 549 events at 20 venues. Up to 25,000 police officers and gendarmes will be deployed, as well as 10,000 private security agents and 8,000 soldiers from Operation Sentinelle, during these Paralympic Games.