France deploys nearly 100,000 security personnel for Christmas

The French government will deploy nearly 100,000 security personnel for Christmas as the extremist threat remains high, the French Interior Ministry said in a statement. “To ensure the security on December 24-25, 54,000 police officers, 36,000 gendarmes, and 7,000 soldiers of Operation Sentinel, a total of 97,000, will be mobilized throughout the country,” Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said. Operation Sentinel was launched by the French Army in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January 2015 and the later Paris attacks.