PARIS (Reuters) – French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said 89,000 members of the security forces would be deployed nationwide on Saturday, including 8,000 in Paris, where armored vehicles will also be out on the streets.
“We are facing people who are not here to protest, but to smash and we want to have the means to not give them a free rein,” Philippe told TF1 television’s evening news program on Thursday, revising an earlier figure of 65,000 forces.
Philippe said about 10 armored vehicles belonging to the gendarmerie would also be used, the first time since 2005 when riots broke out in Paris’ suburbs.
Reporting by John Irish and Caoline Paillez; Editing by Alison Williams
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