counterterrorism exercise for the elite units in the Gare Montparnasse – The Point

Several elite units, Raid, the BIS and the GIGN, have implemented in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday the new instructions in case of mass attack during a full scale exercise at the Montparnasse station in Paris. The Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve unveiled Tuesday afternoon the “intervention scheme” supposed to elite units in battle when major attack. The general idea is to improve cooperation between units and facilitate quick arrival in an attack “multi-site” as the one who made 130 dead on 13 November in Paris, ignoring rivalries and territorial jurisdictions.

It is more than an hour in the morning when Bernard Cazeneuve arrives at the Montparnasse station accompanied by the chief of police of Paris, Michel Cadot. A security PC is installed in the station grouping BIS police and gendarmes of the GIGN and Raid. Cameras, maps, radios … three units working together, under a single command.

An assault made in ten minutes

According to the scenario, nine “terrorists” were burst into the station, killing many travelers. Three of them headed to the ticket hall and six to the docks. Arriving at the scene, the Quick Reaction Force (QRF) of the BIS shot a “terrorist”, two were locked in a room with six other hostages and headed for two TGV trains.

It was then decided to also engage the GIGN and Raid under the command of Jean-Michel Fauvergue, head of the Raid. These are some 150 men Tuesday night stormed two TGV trains (GIGN and RAID) and the room full of hostages (BIS). The “top attack” is given. Some explosions echoed through the station. Radios crackle. It announces “GIGN shot a terrorist”, “BIS two terrorists killed, evacuation of hostages”, “GIGN current detrapping”, “Raid two terrorists killed” … In ten minutes the storm is over, the hostages released without wounded. The exercise is finished. “This new intervention scheme is not a break with what was happening in previous years but an enhancement, an improvement,” assured the press Bernard Cazeneuve, at the end of the simulation.

“the difficulty is that the top three assault forces could intervene at the same time,” said Jean-Marc Falcone, Director General of the national Police, for whom this pooling of forces may be considered ” a big step “. “We crossed a course unquestionably in coordination”, approves his counterpart Denis Favier, head of the gendarmerie, citing “considerable progress”.