The Olympic flame has arrived on French soil at the southern port city of Marseille amid tight security, 79 days before the opening ceremony of the Paris Games, reports the BBC.
It is currently en route to the French capital.
After a 12-day trip from Greece on board the 128-year-old three-masted sailing ship Belem, the torch was carried on to land by France’s 2012 Olympic men’s 50m freestyle swimming champion Florent Manaudou.
The ship sailed into Marseille’s old port with the French national anthem „La Marseillaise” echoing from the embankment and a French Air force flyover with planes first drawing the five Olympic rings and then the red-blue-white colors of the nation’s flag.
It was handed to Paralympic track athlete Nantenin Keita, a 400m champion at Rio 2016, before Marseille-born French rapper Jul lit the Paris 2024 Olympic cauldron in front of an estimated crowd of 150,000 that included President Emmanuel Macron.
The Olympic flame relay will set off from the Mediterranean coastal city on Thursday and travel around France and to six overseas territories before arriving in Paris for the opening ceremony on 26 July.
A flotilla of more than 1,000 boats welcomed the Belem to Marseille.
Officials said 6,000 law enforcement officers, canine units and elite forces snipers would be on patrol.
„Life goes on in Marseille but in great security conditions,” said interior minister Gerald Darmanin. „It’s an unprecedented level of security.”
France raised its security threat level last October after a teacher was killed in a knife attack, while there are concerns that wars in Ukraine and Gaza could increase the threat.
In April of this year, Mr Darmanin spoke of an online threat to European sporting events that he said had been „publicly expressed” by the Islamic State group.
The president of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, Tony Estanguet, declared that Marseille was the „obvious choice” to host the boat parade given it is France’s oldest city and was founded by Greeks.
„It’s something we’ve been waiting for for a very long time. The Games are coming home,” added Estanguet, referring to French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin, who revived the idea of the Games as practised by the Greeks until the 4th Century.
The torch will begin its journey to Paris on Thursday, with former Marseille footballers Jean-Pierre Papin, Didier Drogba and Basile Boli among the torch bearers.
More than 10,000 people will take part in the 7,500-mile torch relay before the flame reaches the capital city and is installed near the Louvre, in the Jardin des Tuileries.
The opening ceremony of the Olympics is due to see more than 10,000 athletes sail along a 6km stretch of the River Seine through the centre of Paris on 160 barges.
However, last month President Macron said the opening ceremony could move if the security risk is too high.
In any case, the cauldron will be lit at a location in Paris that is being kept top-secret until the day itself. Among reported options are such iconic spots as the Eiffel Tower and the Tuileries Gardens outside the Louvre Museum.
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