The French government has raised the vigilance plan "vigipirat "to the level of an" emergency attack " on the entire territory of the country, following the stabbing death of Professor Dominique Bernard on Friday, October 13, at a high school in Arras, northern France .

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edited by |Jus Mcmahon

 

Europe section -  CJ journalist

 

Paris - October,14,2023 

 

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The "emergency attack" level means the maximum alert level under the "vigipirat" plan, which provides for the imposition of anti-terrorist measures immediately after an attack, for a specific period of time until the crisis is addressed.

The French "Vigipirate Plus" plan, or state of emergency, contains more than 300 measures, some of which are confidential, and includes 13 areas, including health, cyber security, building protection, alarms and mobilization, according to the French newspaper "Le Monde".

The current measures can be taken at "major national events," according to the document of the general secretariat of Defense and national security.

According to the decision, 7,000 Sentinel troops will be deployed by Monday evening and"until further notice," as quoted by the correspondent of the free website in Paris.

The state of emergency is an exceptional regime approved by France in 1955, as part of the measures taken at the time in the framework of the Algerian War.

France returned to the state of emergency in 1978, when France and Europe experienced "the first wave of terrorist acts carried out by extremist or separatist organizations or supported by foreign countries," according to the French government website.

It was also adopted in the shadow of the January-April 1991 Gulf War, and following the 1995 Paris attacks.

In 2003, the four alarm levels classified according to the colors yellow, orange, red and Crimson were adopted.

In March 2012, following the attacks carried out by Mohamed Merah, the Scarlet alert was activated for the first time. Then, Merah killed a young paratrooper in the southwestern French city of Toulouse after luring him into an ambush. On the 15th of the same month, three more paratroopers in military uniforms were shot at Montauban, 50 km from Toulouse, killing two of them and wounding the third, which left him permanently paralyzed.

The state of emergency was imposed in 2005 as a result of riots that broke out after the murder of two young men chased by the police, and in the wake of the bloody attacks in Paris in 2015.

Another incident prompted the French government to raise the alert level to the maximum level in 2020, in the wake of the stabbing incident at the Benes Church in southeastern France, which claimed the lives of three people. At that time, the French authorities raised the security alert level in buildings, transport and public places. Many additional measures have been activated to ensure these goals.

A state of emergency can be declared on the rest of French territory or on part of it, depending on the level of danger determined by the authorities.

Under the declaration of a state of emergency, the governors can block the movement of people or vehicles within certain geographical frameworks or during specific times in a special decree.