After the Oslo attack, reinforced security in France around LGBT gatherings

“The dramatic events that occurred yesterday in Oslo, the motives of which have not yet been fully established at this time, call for increased general vigilance”, wrote the Minister of the Interior in a telegram.

Gérald Darmanin asks “without delay” the prefects and the directors general of the police and the gendarmerie to “mobilize all the sensors” to “detect possible threats likely to weigh” on the various LGBT processions.

The heightened counter-terrorism threat

In Paris, where the authorities have planned a mobilization of 25,000 to 35,000 people, “the anti-terrorist dimension of the system, always taken into account in a context of perennial threat, has been reinforced” and “the positioning of the police has been tightened around the demonstration,” the police headquarters told AFP.

In addition, “the perimeter established around the Marais district for the evening festivities also incorporates this aspect with, for example, the installation of reinforced concrete barriers at the entry points, in support of the police”, she added.

Friday evening, a shooting killed two people and injured 21, including ten seriously, near a gay bar in the heart of downtown Oslo, where the Pride march scheduled for Saturday was canceled.

The alleged perpetrator of the attack is a 42-year-old Norwegian of Iranian origin known to the services responsible for anti-terrorism.