For this event which will be “watched around the world”, “we drew a lot of inspiration from what we achieved during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, both for the management of the ceremonies themselves and for the methods of reception of the public and regulatory security measures”, details Prefect Nuñez in an interview with “Parisien”.
“Geographically speaking, it’s a small part of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games,” he adds. “Several thousand” police officers and gendarmes, as well as soldiers from the Sentinel system, will be mobilized for this event which is being held in a context of “very high level of terrorist threat, as during the Olympics”. “There was, to my knowledge, no real threat to the event,” specifies the prefect.
The BRI (Research and Intervention Brigade) will be in “intervention reserve” and “precision shooters” will carry out “surveillance on high points”, he further details.
Around fifty heads of state expected
Around fifty heads of state are expected for the reopening of the cathedral. Only guests will be able to access the square and the building, the capacity of which is 3,000 people maximum, recalls the police prefect.
On the high platforms near the building, an “area will be set up” to accommodate the public. A maximum of 40,000 people will be able to access it. An anti-terrorist perimeter known as SILT will be set up. It will encompass “the entire Île de la Cité and a large part of the left bank quays (of the Seine, Editor’s note), from the Pont de la Tournelle to the Pont Neuf,” explains Mr. Nuñez.
