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France Marking Bastille Day Under Tight Security


14 July 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Some 5,000 extra police are being deployed in Paris as France today marks Bastille Day amid security fears following last week's London terror bombings.

Paris police said officers have been ordered to show "extreme vigilance" during the annual military parade along the Champs-Elysees and other festivities to mark the national holiday commemorating the 1789 storming of the Bastille and the French Revolution.

France has raised its terror-alert status to the second-highest level of "red" in the wake of the 7 July London bombings that killed at least 52 people.

In his annual Bastille Day television interview, French President Jacques Chirac is expected to face questions about the security situation, as well as Paris' recent loss to London in the campaign to host the 2012 Olympics and the rejection by French voters of the European Union constitution.

(Reuters/AP/AFP)
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