‘No Plan B' for Paris Opening Ceremony after Knife Attack

This long exposure photograph taken on December 2, 2023, shows a general view of the Eiffel tower in central Paris. (Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP)
This long exposure photograph taken on December 2, 2023, shows a general view of the Eiffel tower in central Paris. (Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP)
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‘No Plan B' for Paris Opening Ceremony after Knife Attack

This long exposure photograph taken on December 2, 2023, shows a general view of the Eiffel tower in central Paris. (Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP)
This long exposure photograph taken on December 2, 2023, shows a general view of the Eiffel tower in central Paris. (Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP)

There is no "plan B" for the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games, the French sports minister said on Monday, after a man armed with a knife and hammer killed a German tourist and left two people wounded near the Eiffel Tower on Saturday.
"We have no plan B, we have a plan in which there are several sub-plans with a certain number of adjustment variables," Amelie Oudea-Castera told France Inter radio.
The 26-year-old suspect, a French national arrested after the attack, had pledged allegiance to ISIS in a video recorded beforehand, anti-terrorism Prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said on Sunday.
The attack occurred on the Quai de Grenelle - a spot also included in the plans for the opening ceremony.
Asked if the government was mulling a change to its plan to hold the ceremony on the River Seine, with several hundred thousand spectators expected along its banks amid the security threats, the minister said: "This not something we're working with."
"We have the capacity to secure the event", she said, adding that certain details, including the number of additional cultural events surrounding the main spectacle and said the security perimeter would be adjusted closer to the Games.



Olympic Cauldron to Rise into Paris Skies Each Night

 Paris 2024 Olympics - Paris, France - July 27, 2024. A general view of the balloon and Olympic cauldron in Jardin des Tuileries. (Reuters)
Paris 2024 Olympics - Paris, France - July 27, 2024. A general view of the balloon and Olympic cauldron in Jardin des Tuileries. (Reuters)
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Olympic Cauldron to Rise into Paris Skies Each Night

 Paris 2024 Olympics - Paris, France - July 27, 2024. A general view of the balloon and Olympic cauldron in Jardin des Tuileries. (Reuters)
Paris 2024 Olympics - Paris, France - July 27, 2024. A general view of the balloon and Olympic cauldron in Jardin des Tuileries. (Reuters)

The Olympic cauldron that made a stunning first flight at the Paris Games opening ceremony will sit on the ground during the day and rise again every evening.

Paris Olympics organizers said that from Saturday, the cauldron attached to a balloon will fly more than 60 meters (197 feet) above the Tuileries gardens near the glass pyramid entrance to the Louvre museum from sunset until 2 a.m.

During daytime hours, 10,000 people each day can get free tickets to approach the cauldron, which is the first in Olympic history to light up without the use of fossil fuels.

Organizers said the electric flame uses 40 LED spotlights “to illuminate the cloud created by 200 high-pressure misting nozzles.”