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Paris to send 4,000 police officers to France-Israel soccer match following Amsterdam violence
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Paris to send 4,000 police officers to France-Israel soccer match following Amsterdam violence

PARIS (AP) — Paris police said Sunday that 4,000 officers and 1,600 stadium employees will be deployed for a France-Israel soccer match to ensure security in and around the stadium and on public transportation a week after violence against Israeli fans in Amsterdam.

France and Israel play a UEFA Nations League match on Thursday.

“There is a context, tensions that make this match a high-risk event for us,” Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez told French news channel BFM TV, adding that authorities “will not tolerate” any violence .

Nuñez said 2,500 police would be deployed around the Stade de France stadium north of the French capital, in addition to another 1,500 in Paris and on public transport.

“There will be an anti-terrorist security perimeter around the stadium,” Nuñez said. Security checks will be “tightened”, he added, including through systematic pats and searches of bags.

Nuñez said French organizers have been in contact with Israeli authorities and security forces to prepare for the match.

Israeli fans were attacked last week after a soccer match in Amsterdam by hordes of youths apparently angered by calls on social media to target Jews, according to Dutch authorities. Five people were treated in hospitals and dozens arrested after the attacks, which were condemned as anti-Semitic by authorities in Amsterdam, Israel and across Europe.

Sunday, Dutch police detained several people for attending a demonstration in central Amsterdam that was banned following violence targeting Israeli fans, a local broadcaster reported.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau confirmed on Friday that the France-Israel match will go ahead as planned.

“I think for a symbolic reason we must not give in, we must not give up,” he said, noting that sports fans around the world had gathered at the Paris Olympics this year to celebrate “universal values ” of sports.