French Minister Inspects Stepped-Up Security at Lourdes

Elaine Ganley ^ | 8/13 /16 | AP

[marshmallow]

PARIS (AP) -- Soldiers, police and undercover agents are mixing with pilgrims, some hoping for a miracle cure, at the French pilgrimage site of Lourdes, where some 20,000 are expected to gather on Monday for the Feast of the Assumption - a security challenge for France on high alert for terrorist attacks.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve inspected the more than 500 security forces at the shrine on Saturday, two days before Monday's celebration of the Assumption when, according to Roman Catholic belief, Mary, the mother of Jesus, ascended into heaven.

A down-to-earth security plan is greeting pilgrims as they arrive in this town nestled in verdant southwest France, coming from around the country and from abroad. Police and soldiers were already milling among pilgrims on Saturday, around the sanctuary or the plaza in front of the sprawling white Basilica.

Monday's outdoor Mass will present a special security challenge since some pilgrims are in wheelchairs or on stretchers, making the trip here in hopes of finding a miraculous cure.

Cazenueve said that 297 extra forces were brought in - mobile units, soldiers, bomb squads, canine units - to help local forces, raising the security presence to 508. In addition, pilgrims are being patted down and their bags checked at three entrances to the Lourdes Sanctuary - reduced from 12 in normal times, Lourdes officials have said. Video surveillance cameras have been mounted, drones forbidden and traffic rerouted away from the site at critical hours of the day.

"I've mobilized you all for several months, especially this summer, during an extremely high terrorist threat level," the minister said to the extra forces, thanking them for the help.

A Bastille Day truck attack in Nice, on the Riviera, that killed 85 people was followed less than two weeks later by the slaying of........

[lee martell]

This is very wise considering all that has happened lately in France. This time, the security guards better not let any ‘Ice Cream Delivery’ truck through the secured barriers.

[SkyDancer]

France shows the world how to fight extremist violence, by confiscating penknives from the local winemakers:http://www.thelocal.fr/20160812/life-on-the-home-front-in-frances-war-on-terror?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=im&utm_tracker=1722735x84899

[Cobra64]

Nasty devices could have been hidden anywhere days ago. The only way to stop the threat, is to eliminate the source of the threat. France is self destructing.

Coming to a town near you too, thanks to Paul Ryan, John McCain, and the democrats.

[I want the USA back]

Well, the subhumans killed a priest during Mass. What will they stoop to next? You can be sure they would like nothing more than to kill a few hundred elderly, sick people, as they are carried on their stretchers and wheelchairs to the grotto to pray.
To the reptilians, that would be the ultimate nirvana, as they fulfill the wishes of their leader.