- Title: FRANCE: FRENCH SOLDIERS HELP STEM THE WAVE OF BOMB ATTACKS
- Date: 8th September 1995
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (SEPTEMBER 8, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/LV EVENING SKYLINE / EIFFEL TOWER (2 SHOTS) 0.12 2. SLV/SV FRENCH SOLDIERS PATROLLING AND TOURISTS MILLING UNDER EIFFEL TOWER (4 SHOTS) 0.37 3. SLV/SV EIFFEL TOWER FROM GROUND LEVEL (2 SHOTS) 0.46 4. LV FRENCH SOLDIERS PATROLLING AROUND BASE OF TOWER (2 SHOTS) 1
- Embargoed: 23rd September 1995 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- City:
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVACNG6IU1JLW0J0SYMYE8PLA0JB
- Story Text: French soldiers armed with assault rifles took up positions under the Eiffel Tower and at two other sites in Paris on Friday (September 8) to help stem a wave of bomb attacks in the country.
The troops, drawn from a marine armoured regiment stationed outside Paris, were under the command of the city's police and have been entrusted with "a guard and surveillance mission", said an army spokesman.
French television said about 500 troops would be deployed by nightfall and the number would reach 1,800 in the next few days.
Although the troops will be armed with their usual weapons, FAMAS assault rifles, ammunition clips will remain in their pockets and not in the weapons, the army spokesman said.
The troops were ordered on the streets of Paris within the framework of an emergency security plan activated on Thursday after a bomb was aimed at a Jewish school in Lyon, the sixth guerrilla attack in France in as many weeks.
Government ministers have expressed suspicion that Algerian Moslem extremists are behind the attacks, which have killed seven people and injured more than 100.
The unit deployed -- the "Regiment de Marche du Tchad" -- is best known for having been the first allied unit to enter Nazi-occupied Paris in 1944 when it was part of the Free French Second Armoured Division.
The government has made special provisions for schools by controlling the flow of pupils going in and out of school buildings, imposing a ban on parking near entrances, removing hundreds of vehicles stationed outside them and even blasting open the boot of several cars with remote-controlled explosive charges.
In the past six weeks, blasts have hit a commuter train and a tourist area of central Paris. Last weekend a bomb failed to explode and another misfired in crowded Paris street markets.
A bomb placed on a high-speed railway line just north of Lyon last month failed to explode due to a faulty detonator.
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