REPORTING. Protective bubble, elite units and emergency lanterns: in Marseille, the police are preparing the arrival of the Olympic flame
Until the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 11,000 bearers will pass the flame from hand to hand from Marseille where it arrives on Wednesday May 8. A torch relay which will pass through 450 towns in mainland France and overseas. And so that the sacred fire, lit in Olympia, never goes out, the flame will be surrounded by a protective bubble made up of around sixty police officers and gendarmes, throughout its journey. Franceinfo attended one of their training sessions in Carpiagne, east of Marseille.
It is a very slow convoy, of around forty vehicles with elite units, such as the GIGN or anti-drone fight specialists. They will surround the flame, which will pass from torch to torch, all escorted by around twenty runners, police officers and gendarmes in sneakers, trained in all scenarios such as an attempted intrusion.
“The objective, for us, is to arrest, so that the convoy can leave quickly,” explains Camille Chaize, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas Territories, “and also to take legal action, because it is an offense to want to obstruct the convoy of the flame.”
The police are preparing for these attempts at obstruction, since “vssome will try to use this visibility for their demands”, according to commissioner Charles Barion, Who “knows that we will certainly be disrupted”. A journey which will last two and a half months and where “the level of security must be the same on the first day in Marseille, the last day in Paris”, but also during the passage “at Pont-Audemer”in Eure, “in Saverne, in Alsace”, or “in Dieppe”, assures the commissioner.
Some will have only one mission: to keep the flame burning, like Jean-Marc, gendarmerie major and guardian of the flame. He will be “responsible 24 hours a day, night and day”, he explains, because “this flame must remain lit, from Greece to Paris.” However, “seen the device” put in place, the gendarmerie major ensures that it “There’s no need to fear.” Indeed, beyond the security bubble, the guardians of the flame carefully preserve, protected from the public and from bad weather, emergency lanterns lit by the fire of Olympia.
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