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600 police on duty for Israeli club's 'high-risk' Paris basketball clash / Photo: GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT - AFP
600 police on duty for Israeli club's 'high-risk' Paris basketball clash
Hundreds of Paris police officers were deployed on Thursday for a basketball match classified as "high-risk" due to the participation of an Israeli team.
The game between Paris and Maccabi Tel Aviv attracted around 5,000 spectators, 1,000 of whom were backing the visiting team with 600 police on duty in order to quell potential protests.
Around 400 fans sported T-shirts in the colours of the Tel Aviv side.
Thursday's Euroleague match was held just a day after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire and hostage-release deal aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
Despite the tight security, there were no reports of trouble at the match played at l'Arena Porte de la Chapelle in the north of the French capital.
On Wednesday, Paris police had indicated that Thursday's match was "likely to constitute a symbolic target for acts of a terrorist nature" in a "current context of very high threat".
"We felt the atmosphere," said Paris player Yakuba Ouattara. "But we are professionals so we manage to focus on the objective.”
The game came two months after 40 arrests were made at a tense Nations League football match between France and Israel at the city's Stade de France when 4,000 police were on duty.
Security for that match had been intensified after fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv's football team were attacked in Amsterdam the previous week.
(T.Wright--TAG)
