There are multiple plans in place for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games should the security risk be too high to host the curtain raiser on the Seine, according to the French president Emmanuel Macron.
Europe, especially Champions League football, has been at the heart of security threats recently.
Terror group ISIS said they’d target the Champions League quarter-finals across Germany, England and Spain recently and it has led to concerns surrounding the Olympic Games.
The Paris 2024 opening ceremony is planned for the River Seine, with 300,000 fans expected to line its banks in an event that has been described as the first of its kind.
“There are plans B and plans C,” he told French media BFM-TV and RMC. “We are preparing them in parallel.
“We will do an analysis in real time. We have a ceremony which would be limited to the Trocadero and which would therefore not cover the entire Seine.”
Olympic Games screening
Macron also said they could revert to the Stade de France, scene of a terror attack in 2015.
“We will screen all the people who enter and leave (the security perimeter),” continued Macron.
“We are going to restrict traffic a lot. Sorry to all the local residents because it will be a lot of constraints for individuals and businesses. Eight days before, we will be completely closed.
“It is a cautious but confident and enthusiastic president who approaches the Olympic Games in the capital.
“We want to show the most beautiful face of France.”
The Olympics get underway on 26 July and run through until 11 August. The Paralympics will then take place later in the summer.
It is the first time in 100 years the games have been in Paris, with the French capital among a small number of cities – including London – to host the quadrennial event three times.