Faced with the
“very high level of the
terrorist threat
”
, rigor is required during this Holy Week for Christians and as Easter approaches. While the Vigipirate system was raised, at the end of last week, to its maximum
“emergency-attack”
level , the Minister of the Interior sent a telegram this Thursday to all the prefects. In this missive, which
Le Figaro
was able to consult, Gérald Darmanin calls for the establishment of
“reinforced vigilance”
around places of worship for masses, offices and Stations of the Cross organized until March 31.
In order to secure the Easter holidays, the minister insists on
“visual control”
of people going to places of worship in order to
“detect suspicious individuals”
. The attention of law enforcement must also be focused on
“vehicles parked near places of assembly or worship”
. Preventing the risk of attack finally requires limiting
“the number of accesses to places of worship”
, without
“hindering the rapid evacuation of the faithful”
if necessary.
“On the most sensitive locations, resources must be deployed in coordination with the forces of Operation Sentinel”
, specially trained to deal with the terrorist threat.
After the attack on Moscow - which left 143 dead - claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State, France was placed on maximum alert in the face of the threat of attacks.
“4,000 additional soldiers”
are placed
“on alert”
in addition to the 3,000 already deployed as part of Operation Sentinel, the head of government, Gabriel Attal, declared on Monday.
“The Islamist terrorist threat is real, it is strong”
and
“it has never weakened
,” he added during a visit to Saint-Lazare station in Paris.
“Our mobilization is obviously total to face it”
,
“we are acting everywhere to suffocate it”
with the deployment of
“exceptional means everywhere on the territory.”