(19 Jul 2024)
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Paris – 19 July 2024
1. Various of French soldiers in close combat training situation at temporary military camp set up for the Olympics
2. Military instructor Sergeant Jeremy (last name withheld for security reasons) showing troops how to neutralise assailant
3. Sergeant Jeremy hitting training bag with baton
4. Soldier with protective helmet holding training bag
5. SOUNDBITE (French) Sergeant Jeremy (last name withheld for security reasons), close combat instructor:
"Today we really focused on standing impacts, with all of our gear on. We use fists, feet, batons and rifles. We focused on these standing positions but there’s all sorts of other techniques for various situations."
6. Sergeant Jeremy talking to soldiers standing in circle
7. Soldiers listening to instructions
8. Sergeant Jeremy giving instructions
9. Close up of Sentinelle (urban anti-terrorist patrolling operation) insignia on arm
10. Soldier listening
11. SOUNDBITE (French) Captain Thomas (last name withheld for security reasons), 27th Alpine Hunters regiment:
"With this kind of training, we are already in a capacity to tackle these threats (knife attack on the street) and we are always on high alert so we don’t need to change our procedures because we already take this threat into consideration."
12. Soldiers sorting their gear
13. Stack of dummy rifles used in training
14. Soldier putting on bulletproof vest
15. SOUNDBITE (French) Captain Thomas (last name withheld for security reasons), 27th Alpine Hunters regiment:
"Our deployment order covers the entire Olympic Games and our orders are to support the Interior Security Forces (FSI) – police, gendarmes, firefighters, who are all on the frontline – to secure the Olympic Games. We act as support for the FSI and our goal is to be deployed across town to be able to intervene in case there’s a terrorist threat – we focus on anti-terrorism."
16. Various of soldiers exercising and lifting weights at camp
STORYLINE:
Soldiers stationed in Paris for the Olympic Games took part in a close combat training session on Friday in the wake of a string of knife attacks targeting security forces deployed in the French capital.
A dozen infantry forces in full gear staged close contact attacks, punching and kicking training bags, wielding batons and using dummy rifles to neutralise a would-be assailant.
The French army says these training sessions are refresher courses that every soldier takes several times a month and were not implemented as a response to recent violent incidents involving patrols.
Last Monday, a man stabbed and wounded a French soldier patrolling Paris just days before the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics.
The stabbing occurred outside the Gare de l’Est train station in eastern Paris.
The city has been under a high security alert before the start of the Summer Games on July 26.
The soldier was hospitalised with a shoulder blade injury, but was not in life-threatening condition, officials said after the attack.
Thousands of troops serve in the Sentinelle force for France’s domestic security, created to guard prominent French sites after a string of deadly Islamic State extremist attacks in 2015.
Soldiers in the Sentinelle force have been targeted in the past.
Paris is deploying around 30,000 police officers each day for the Olympics, which run from July 26 to Aug. 11, with a peak of 45,000 for the opening ceremony on the Seine river.
AP Video shot by Alexander Turnbull
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