Paris on high alert
2005-07-13 21:49
Paris - On high alert for possible terrorism, Paris police will deploy about 5 000 officers to ensure security for the national Bastille Day celebrations on Thursday and are urging revellers to leave their handbags at home as a precaution.
Police have been ordered to show "extreme vigilance" during the annual military parade along the Champs-Elysées and other festivities for the national holiday, said Paris police.
After last week's deadly terrorist bombings in London, France raised its terror-alert status to the second-highest level of "red".
The move triggered measures such as raising the number of soldiers who protected sensitive sites like train stations and airports.
President Jacques Chirac said on Wednesday in an annual speech to the military on the eve of Bastille Day: "The terrible terrorist threat requires mobilisation and vigilance at every instant.
"The cowardly and dramatic attacks in London just reminded us of that - cruelly."
'Maximum level of vigilance'
Defence minister Michele Alliot-Marie, in an interview published on Wednesday in the daily Le Parisien, said the government "has taken all the qualitative and quantitative means to protect this parade".
Referring to possible terrorism in France, she said "the risk exists" and said that the country is now in a period "that requires us to be at a maximum level of vigilance".
The Paris police department said on Monday that officers had been instructed "to seize any object that could be of a nature to trouble the public order" during Thursday's celebrations.
"It is recommended that spectators avoid coming with bags," it said.
Police will also corral spectators in barrier-lined areas, film crowds and limit parking, traffic and access to some subway stations as part of the security measures.
- AP