800 excluded from Paris Olympics over security fears: Interior ministry

Around 800 people who "did not have good intentions" have been excluded from working for the Paris Olympics organisation over security fears, French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said Sunday.

According to French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, security forces screen everyone who is likely to come into contact with the Olympic Games: the volunteers, the torch bearers, the people who will welcome the public.

"There are a million checks to be done; we have already carried out 180,000 checks. We have excluded 800 people," Darmanin told broadcaster LCI.

The list includes 15 on Fiches S deemed to represent the most serious threat to national security.

"That means that there are people who wanted to register to carry the flame, to be volunteers at the Olympic Games and who clearly did not have good intentions," he added.

Darmanin specified that among those excluded were "radical Islamists" and "radical environmental activists who want to protest".

He also said that 102 private security agents on the 'S' file were recently excluded from the Olympics.

Screening in progress

French security forces are screening up to a million people before the Olympics, including athletes and people living close to key infrastructure, according to the interior ministry.

Ahead of the start on 26 July, all 10,500 athletes selected for the Olympics and 4,400 for the Paralympics will be subjected to background checks, as will their coaches and medical staff, in addition to 26,000 accredited journalists.

France was placed on its highest alert for terror attacks in October after a suspected Islamist burst into a school in the north of the country and stabbed a teacher to death.

Four months ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, French authorities have raised the maximum alert level for terrorist threat.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said last week that 4,000 extra soldiers would be deployed nationwide.

The Olympic and Paralympic Games will mobilise nearly 45,000 internal security forces.

35,000 police officers and gendarmes will be on duty on average per day throughout France.

Added to this are at least 18,000 soldiers and between 18,000 and 22,000 private security agents.

(with AFP)