The Olympics officially kick off on Friday with an extravagant opening ceremony in the heart of Paris, but an attack by vandals targeting France’s high-speed TGV rail network exposed security risks at a time when all eyes are on the country.
The coordinated actions by saboteurs brought major disruption to some of France’s busiest rail lines. Paris 2024 said the Olympics opening ceremony would go ahead as planned.The attacks took place far from Paris at a time when a massive security operation rolled out in the capital for the opening ceremony, involving some 45,000 police and thousands of soldiers, has sucked in security resources from across France.
The opening parade will feature a procession of barges which will take nearly 7,000 athletes along the River Seine past Paris’s most famous landmarks, while more than 300 000 spectators will watch from the banks. Since the last Games – the Winter Olympics held in Beijing in 2022 – wars have erupted in Ukraine and Gaza, providing a highly tense international backdrop.
France is at its highest level of security, though officials have repeatedly said there is no specific threat to the opening ceremony or the Games. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
South Africa South Africa Latest News, South Africa South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: SABC News Online - 🏆 32. / 51 Read more »
Source: SABC News Online - 🏆 32. / 51 Read more »
Source: SABC News Online - 🏆 32. / 51 Read more »