Big money is out. Faced with the terrorist threat weighing on the Champions League, a large police force will be deployed at the Parc des Princes this Wednesday evening to secure the quarter-final which sees Paris Saint-Germain face FC Barcelona (9 p.m.) .
Nearly a thousand police officers mobilized
According to a police source at Le Parisien, “additional mobile force units will be deployed to supervise the sporting event. » According to this same source, “the system will mobilize intervention police officers in the immediate vicinity of the site. »
An increased number of patrols and specialized resources, such as drones, are planned, our police source confirms. In total, seven mobile force units will be mobilized to ensure security for the PSG-Barça match, as well as specialized units, including the BRI, or around a thousand police officers, a police source told AFP.
The DGSI “hard at work”
The police prefect “has considerably strengthened security resources”, assured Gérald Darmanin on Tuesday morning during a trip to the River Brigade. The General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) “is particularly hard at work to provide preventive or, if necessary, curative information,” added the Beauvau tenant.
A meeting was held Tuesday evening with the Minister of the Interior to organize the security system. The General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), the General Directorate of the National Police (DGPN) and the police headquarters were summoned, according to our information.
“No zero risk”
“There is no proven threat [concernant le match], but our caution and our responsibility remain at all times,” commented Prisca Thevenot, government spokesperson, during the press briefing at the end of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday noon. The security system is reinforced “with regard to the Vigipirate plan” raised on March 24 to its maximum “emergency attack” level, two days after the Moscow attack, she added.
Asked about the security issues around the match at the microphone of BFMTV and RMC, Jean-Charles Brisard, president of the Center for the Analysis of Terrorism, invites PSG supporters to go to the stadium, despite threats from the Islamic State organization. “On a global level, we must never give in to terrorist blackmail, that’s what they want,” he justifies. He assures: “The authorities have taken very concrete measures, both in terms of human and technical resources to deal with this eventuality”, while admitting that “zero risk does not exist”. Jean-Charles Brisard calls for “taking precautions but not giving up on the party”.
In several messages posted on its social networks, the Islamic State terrorist organization threatened to act during the various quarter-final matches of the European football competition.