Paris Police struggle to maintain control of capital ahead of Olympics opening cermony, spike in local gang robberies

Local gangs have exploited gaps in the capacity of police in France and Belgium leading to a spike in robberies, the most recent targeting an Australian Olympic gold medallist Logan Martin.

Local gangs have exploited gaps in the capacity of police in France and Belgium to secure the audacious Paris Olympic Games opening ceremony along the Seine River with a spike of robberies, the most recent targeting an Australian Olympic gold medallist Logan Martin.

With the focus on securing the Paris Olympic Games, Paris police are struggling to maintain control of the French capital.

Their neighbour, Belgium is facing a similar problem, having dispatched sniffer dogs, bomb disposal experts, drone experts and border protection officers into France, stretching their own services.

Athletes, Olympic officials, and tourists who have flooded into Paris, while locals have headed to the coast and the country, have been warned to be vigilant.

On Wednesday a Russian national was detained amid fears he was preparing to disrupt the Olympic Games, and conspiring with a foreign power to provoke hostilities, the Paris prosecutor’s office told CNN.

French authorities obtained an administrative order to search the man’s house finding evidence he was preparing, “events likely to lead to destabilisation during the Olympic Games”.

On Wednesday Martin posted a video of the aftermath of a smash and grab robbery of the Australian BMX cycling van which happened just before the team was about to drive from Brussels to Paris.

He lost his backpack, including his wallet and a few other items.

Team officials said the cyclists were relieved to discover that their BMX bikes were left untouched.

“Everything they lost can be replaced, but they would have been in a real pickle if the bikes had been taken,’’ the official said.

Olympic champion Logan Martin has had his preparation for Paris rocked by a smash and grab with thieves raiding his team van.

The broken into car.

With 45,000 police and 18,000 military in town, Paris should be the safest place on earth, but instead the focus upon keeping the Seine River secure for the opening ceremony has put such a strain on the local police they have been unable to keep other parts of the city in check.

This week alone Australia has been the subject of criminal acts in Paris:, the most shocking being the gang rape of an Australian 25-year-old tourist in the early hours of Sunday which left her highly distressed.

Paris prosecutors said they were investigating the circumstances before and after the woman took refuge in a cafe in the 18th arrondissement, where she was taken care of by firefighters who were called by cafe patrons.

Then on Tuesday Channel 9’s director of sport Brent Williams told the Paris team that two team members had left the International Broadcast Centre and were walking to accommodation in the north east suburb of Le Bourget when they were attacked “in a serious physical nature” by a group of men.

Mr Williams said the attack appeared to be an attempted robbery.

Australian chef de mission Anna Meares has recommended Australian athletes to remove their accreditation tags and wear plain clothes when outside of the secure confines of the Athletes Village.

“We are encouraging them if they go out of the Village to not go out on their own and not wear a team uniform,’’ she said.

The French government has called on dozens of countries to help protect the Games, which is a high value target for Islamist terrorists.

An entire battalion of the military has been seconded to protect the athletes on the parade of boats in the opening ceremony.

Both banks of the Seine River, for more than six kilometres, have been fenced off and protected by heavily armed police, many of whom have come from prefectures outside of the capital.

The capital has been protected in the air with a network of eight anti-drone machines and comprehensive sweeps of Olympic venues by explosive experts and specially trained sniffer dogs.

France is relying on intelligence gathered primarily from the Five Eyes intelligence community, led by the United States, but also with Australian contribution.

One of the first Olympic events, a group football match between Israel and Mali at Parc du Princes in Paris on Wednesday evening, has seen thousands of armed police and military swarm the area.

The Israeli team is protected 24 hours by a special unit of the French police, the interior minister Gerard Darmanin said this week.

Originally published as Paris Police struggle to maintain control of capital ahead of Olympics opening cermony, spike in local gang robberies