Elite French tactical unit hopes for peaceful Paris Games

PARIS: Around 50 khaki-clad men riding atop a black armoured truck approached an abandoned office building on the outskirts of Paris one spring morning and blew open a second-storey window with an explosive device.

After clearing shards of glass from the window frame, they shuffled through the gaping hole and into the graffiti-covered building in search of hostages - in reality junior members of the Gendarmerie - held inside.

The training exercise, held in preparation for the July 26-Aug. 11 Olympic Games, was one of the final dress rehearsals for an event nobody wants to happen. Founded 50 years ago after the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, in which 11 Israelis died in an attack by a Palestinian militant group, the GIGN is one of France’s elite tactical units, responsible for freeing hostages, counter-terrorism operations and other high-stake raids.

Should such an incident occur at the Games, which will be a step closer to reality on Wednesday evening when the Olympic torch arrives in Marseille, the GIGN will be summoned. Ghislain Rety, commander of the GIGN, said his team was ready.

“It would be dishonest to say there is no risk, but it is minimized as much as possible,” he said. Rety acknowledged a certain symmetry between the GIGN’s origin story and its Olympic mission but hoped the force can celebrate its anniversary without being called into action.

Paris has been on high alert since 2015 Islamist attacks that killed 130 people and injured hundreds more. Still, the Olympics, and particularly the Opening Ceremony, represent a security challenge like no other.

With 300,000 people watching from the river banks and millions more tuning in on TV, the ceremony is due to take place on barges along a 6-kilometer stretch of the Seine. Wars in Ukraine and Gaza have complicated security planning, and French President Emmanuel Macron has floated potentially scrapping the river ceremony and reverting to back-up plans.