The Raid, the French police force's specialist intervention unit, has held a simulation of a terror attack to prepare for the worst-case scenario at the Olympic Games taking place this summer in Paris. During the Games, some 200 members of this elite unit will be mobilized every day.

Paris

The French police force's specialist intervention unit, known as the Raid, has conducted a simulation of a terror attack. This exercise is part of the preparations for the upcoming Olympic Games scheduled to be held in Paris. The aim is to brace for the worst-case scenario, ensuring a robust response capability in the event of a real threat.

During the Olympic Games, around 200 members of this elite unit will be deployed daily. This mobilization underscores the significant measures taken by French authorities to ensure the safety and security of the event, athletes, and spectators alike. The simulation and planned deployment highlight the importance placed on preemptive and reactive strategies in safeguarding public gatherings of international magnitude.



France rehearses anti-terror response ahead of Olympics

French police and intelligence services are ensuring that they are ready for the prospect of a terrorist attack. In a practice drill, a group of armed forces enter a 19th century chateau where police students are play-acting to depict a real-life scenario. So here we were part of a training course for mass killings and we were able to play out the entire scenario from the start of the attack to the complete neutralisation of the four hostage-takers, with the hostages being freed and the injured being taken care of. The simulation comes at a sensitive time in France. The security alert is raised to its highest level following Friday's attack on Moscow's Crocus Concert Hall. And with the Paris Olympic Games just around the corner, hundreds of members of the elite unit are preparing to be mobilised every day to protect civilians if terrorists target the events. But with or without the Olympics, this is core business for the RAID team. They have been conducting these exercises since the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, in which armed assailants killed 130 people when they targeted six locations across the city. This specific rehearsal was designed to make sure different response units work together. It's how everything fits together that interests us, and how do we integrate all the emergency action because initially it's the police who arrive first, then the fire brigade and then it can be reversed. On Monday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced that 4,000 additional military personnel had been placed on high alert and that France had already foiled two attacks in 2024.

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