in anticipation of the Olympic Games, the police are training to face the risk of attacks

This is the scenario that the authorities fear: an attack during the Paris Olympics this summer. The police are therefore training to deal with it, by increasing the number of simulations. Franceinfo attended one of them.

Today’s scenario is that of an attack on the fan zone of the Palace of Versailles, which will notably host the equestrian events of the Paris 2024 Games. The exercise takes place on a police site, a few kilometers away. “A pregnant woman approached a group of supporters and blew herself up, another woman in a nurse’s outfit pulled out a knife”details Commissioner Vincent, who coordinates the investigation for the judicial police. “The results: four people dead, one terrorist blown up and the other neutralized by an off-duty colleague who was on site.”

The aim of this simulation, which franceinfo was able to attend: to train the judicial police in post-attack investigation techniques for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, so that they can start investigations immediately after the events, before even the arrival of the anti-terrorist sub-directorate (Sdat). Because every minute counts for the boss of Sdat, Michel Faury.

“If we do not have all the perpetrators on site who have been neutralized or arrested, we have this risk of complicity, obviously of logistical support, but above all of having other individuals who carry out the act within hours and the days that follow.”

Michel Faury, boss of the Sdat

at franceinfo

Fear: the risk of a terrorist cell that could wake up. “SO this obsession with reiteration leads us to move much faster than in a traditional investigation”, he adds. Within the on-site crisis headquarters, the judicial and scientific police are under the leadership of the Sdat.

The possibility of a terrorist accomplice still active

We have to move quickly, especially in the very area of ​​the attack where the scientific police, including Major Grégory, are working. This officer, who has more than 20 years of service, has seen others: on November 13, Samuel Paty. “The idea is first to quickly understand the scenario, what happened”he explains in the middle of mannequins and scattered objects.

“When I arrived, I noticed that I had a significant number of bullets hit on the ground. I need to know if these hit cases came from the internal security forces who neutralized the terrorist, or if we had another terrorist, perhaps armed, who had not necessarily been identified at the moment.”

Major Gregory

at franceinfo

Fingerprint, telephone or bank card records: everything is used by the police, who leave no stone unturned. This device was tested in Arras, in October 2023, during the assassination of Dominique Bernard, because the Lille judicial police were on the scene before the Sdat, which is in the Paris region. And while waiting for the bullet analyses, it’s time to interview witnesses. “Everything was going well and suddenly everyone started running, we started running too. I didn’t see anything more, but I saw this man shooting”says an American witness.

Investigators must sort through the testimonies: because the shooter mentioned here is in fact the police officer who killed the second terrorist. All this while a third terrorist, the sponsor, was identified and killed a few kilometers away. “This is the man called Lakhdar S., registered as S and followed under radical Sunni Islam”, indicates Commissioner Vincent. Three hours later, this twelfth training session organized by the Sdat ends. Five more are to come between now and the Olympics. Because repetition remains the best anti-terrorist weapon of anticipation.