Alexander Smith is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital based in London.
SAINT-DENIS, France — The beds for 10,000 Olympic contestants are already made and the gleaming athletes’ village has been delivered ahead of schedule, as Paris prepares for the world to descend upon its iconic boulevards this summer. But security worries are hanging over this ambitious party, with organizers admitting this week that several countries are concerned about the Games’ grandiose opening ceremony, a 3.5-mile flotilla along the river Seine.
Officials did not detail their reasoning, but France remains on high alert following a wave of terror attacks in 2015-16 and sporadic stabbings and shootings by lone Islamist attackers since then. Police have been open about the challenges of protecting a flotilla through a dense urban area as opposed to a regular event in a single venue. It’s an operation that will see 45,000 security gendarmes and agents deployed to land, sea and air around the city.
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