A total of 326,000 tickets are set to be sold or given away for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on the River Seine, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Tuesday, giving the exact number for the first time. Security fears have seen the size of the waterborne parade dramatically reduced.
"We will have 104,000 spectators on the lower bank who have paid for a ticket," Darmanin told a hearing in the Sénat.
"Then you have 222,000 people on the higher banks (with free tickets)."
Darmanin estimated that another 200,000 people would watch the event along the river from buildings that overlook the Seine, with an additional 50,000 in fan-zones in the capital.
Resistance from French security services and worries about potential terror attacks saw the number of spectators downgraded from as many as two million people.
However the event is still set to break records in terms of its size, with all previous opening ceremonies taking place in an athletics' stadium.
The open-air ceremony on boats is in keeping with promises to make the Paris Olympics "iconic", with the local organising committee keen to break from past traditions in the way it stages the world's biggest sporting event.
A total of 180 boats are set to sail around six kilometres down the Seine, of which 94 will contain athletes, the top security official for the Paris region, Marc Guillaume, told the same hearing.
Darmanin added: "No country has informed us that they do not want to take part ... They have confidence in our organisation."
Special security
The executive in charge of planning and risk management at the Paris organising committee told AFP last week that special security measures would be considered for high-risk delegations such as those from the US or Israel.
"Every delegation has its own unique circumstances, and we'll look at solutions that are adapted to the risk," Lambis Konstantinidis said.
The Olympics have been targeted with attacks in the past, notably Munich in 1972 and Atlanta in 1996.
France was placed on its highest alert for terror attacks in October after a suspected Islamist burst into a school in northern France and stabbed a teacher to death.
The country has been consistently targeted by Islamic extremists over the last decade, particularly from the Islamic State group, while Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza is seen as exacerbating domestic tensions.
Around a million people are set to be screened in advance by French security forces for possible security risks, including the athletes, journalists, private security guards and people who live close to key infrastructure.
(with AFP)
