70,000 police officers in France to secure the World Cup semi-final and July 14 celebrations

French authorities have decided to deploy 70,000 police and gendarme officers across France next Tuesday to secure the national holiday on July 14 and the World Cup semi-final match held in North America, which will pit the French and Spanish national teams against each other, according to Interior Minister Laurent Nunez. The French minister explained in an interview with BFMTV that these security personnel “will be deployed both in the morning and in the evening.” Nunez affirmed that the evening of last Thursday’s World Cup quarter-final match between France and Morocco (2-0) “generally passed in a very positive atmosphere.” However, the minister added, “We recorded some incidents that led to the arrest of 89 people, and we witnessed the death of a 17-year-old girl in a horrific accident,” emphasizing “zero tolerance for any kind of lawlessness on Tuesday.”