soldiers patrol in front of Notre-Dame-de-Paris on August 15, 2016. – NICOLAS MESSYASZ/SIPA

After the bombing of Berlin, vigilance is still up a notch in France. The announcement on Friday of a attack foiled in Australia for the Christmas day adds a little to the climate particularly tense. This year, the churches will be particularly monitored for 24 and 25 December.

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The Interior minister Bruno Le Roux has asked the prefects to exercise “vigilance exceptional” on ” all the places of a religious nature “, especially during ” gatherings, and offices for Christmas on December 24 and 25 “. On Monday, the new minister, recalled in the journal The World that “a stronger engagement of mobile forces and of the system as a Sentinel” was already scheduled.

8.500 military mobilized

Bruno Le Roux also explained that “the number of soldiers mobilized is expected to increase from the 7,000 currently to around 8,500 over the last ten days of the year “to secure” all places of assembly “and especially” the places of christian worship on the 24th and the 25th of December “.

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This Friday, the tenant of the place Beauvau also indicated that “for the festivals of end of the year and especially at the weekend which promises to be, it is more than 91.000 security forces for this, which depends on the State that will be deployed: police national, national police and military of the device Sentinel”.

known targets

In the paris conurbation, 240 offices will take place in places of worship and will be secured, details of the prefecture of police of Paris with 20 Minutes. Nearly 120 of them will be even more monitored, with strengths of the order at the entrance and at the exit. The cathedral of Notre-Dame will have a device barriérage, with filtering at the input. All in all, 1.700 forces Sentinel will be incurred on Paris.

The churches have already been the target of terrorist attack or attacks in France. Last July, a bombing had taken place in the church of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray (Seine Maritime), where two jihadists were slain, the priest Jacques Hamel in full office. In 2015, Sid Ahmed Ghlam was arrested in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne) for planning a terrorist attack in the city church.

beyond places of worship, the controls at the franco-German border and the security of the sites high attendance have also been increased, including the Christmas markets. All the staff of security have been strengthened over the last year.

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