PARIS, JULY 24: Around 1,000 French police officers will be on duty on Wednesday to protect Israel's football match against Mali at the Paris Olympics where protests are also expected, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
The game involving the Israeli team at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, as well as the Ukraine-Iraq match in the southeastern city of Lyon, have been identified by French security forces as high risk.
"All the competitions have a security plan, but it's true that these two matches, and particularly the match at the Parc des Princes, will have security, an anti-terror perimeter," Darmanin told BFM television and RMC radio.
"Tonight at the Parc des Princes there will be a thousand police officers who will ensure that we are there for the sport," he added.
All Israeli athletes at the Paris Games, which start officially on Friday, will have round-the-clock personal security provided by elite French police, both inside the Olympic village and every time they leave the compound in northern Paris.
A French police source told AFP that security forces were "expecting actions and disturbances around the stadium" on Wednesday and said it was possible that "people shout insults from the stands" or that there is "whistling and flags shown during the hymns, for example." —AFP
