Olympics opening ceremony saw no major reported issues, French official says

PARIS (AP) — France’s interior minister praised security forces after no major issues were reported Friday during the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

Authorities had deployed a massive security operation in Paris to keep the event safe. The capital’s streets were blocked off, with squadrons of police patrolling and imposing metal-fence security barriers erected like an iron curtain on both sides of the River Seine. Up to 45,000 police and gendarmes as well as 10,000 soldiers have been deployed for Olympic security.

Here’s a look at what’s happened with security so far:

No major incidents at opening ceremony

“We did it,” French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on the social platform X, praising an “event without incident.”

“After four years of intense work to prepare for the world’s biggest sport event, we have never been prouder of our security forces,” he tweeted.

Paris police tweeted “plan A” with a video of river officers watching the sparkling Eiffel Tower, in a reference to previous comments by French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledging plans could be revisited for security reasons if needed.

All Parisian bridges were closed to both vehicles and pedestrians as a vast anti-terrorism perimeter along the banks of the river sealed off a kilometers-long (miles-long) area to those without tickets for the ceremony.

French rail network sabotaged

Widespread and “criminal” acts of vandalism including arson attacks hit France’s high-speed rail network Friday. The acts delayed or halted travel to Paris from across the rest of France and Europe for hundreds of thousands of people, including some Olympic athletes heading to the opening ceremony.

Three fires were reported near the tracks on the high-speed lines of Atlantique, Nord and Est. French officials condemned the attacks as “criminal actions.”

Prosecutors opened a national investigation into the crimes — among them property damage threatening the nation’s “fundamental interests” — that could carry sentences of 10 to 20 years.

Brazil soccer legend robbed

Paris prosecutors said Friday that they opened an investigation after Brazilian soccer great Zico reported a robbery.

Zico, a member of the Brazilian delegation attending the Olympics, said “a bag containing valuables had been stolen from his vehicle, which had a window open, in the 19th district of Paris,” according to prosecutors’ statement.

Thwarting plots against the Olympics

French authorities have foiled several plots to disrupt the 2024 Olympics, including arresting a Russian man, just days before the Games officially kick off.

France has been on high alert over the past few weeks as preparations to host the Olympics hit the final stretch.

The city has repeatedly suffered deadly extremist attacks and international tensions are high because of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Paris prosecutors said this week that they had arrested a 40-year-old Russian man at his Paris apartment on suspicion of planning to “destabilize the Olympic Games.”

Blocking suspects from the Games

France’s interior minister said about 1,000 people suspected of possibly meddling for a foreign power have been blocked from attending the Olympics.

About 1 million background checks have scrutinized Olympic volunteers, workers and others involved in the Games as well as those applying for passes to enter the most tightly controlled security zone in Paris — along the banks of the Seine — ahead of the opening ceremony.

The checks blocked about 5,000 people from attending, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. Out of them, about 1,000 people were suspected of foreign interference — or spying, he said.

___

AP journalists Thomas Adamson and Catherine Gaschka contributed.

___

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games