France deploys 5000 extra police to protect tourists from pickpockets and scams

Extra police have been deployed in Paris to protect tourists from pickpockets and scam artists. Photo / 123RF

An extra 5000 French police are patrolling the streets of Paris this summer in a bid to protect tourists from pickpockets and scam artists.

The French capital is on course for one of the biggest influxes of visitors in recent years during the peak season to late September, the Daily Mail reports.

But the city authorities admit that keeping all tourists safe from being robbed or sold fake goods can be difficult.

And now they have deployed extra officers at seven different sites across Paris in a bid to crackdown on crime.

Places with the extra police presence will include the Louvre, Montmarte, the Champs-Elysées, the area around Trocadéro and the Eiffel tower, the Latin Quarter, Châtelet and Opéra.

According to the local.fr, Paris police chief Michel Delpuech said he visited police on duty around the Louvre museum: "We are doing everything we can to make sure that tourists are secure in a safe and peaceful city without transforming the city into a bunker."

While Frédéric Dupuch, a senior Paris security official, told Le Parisien newspaper: "Ninety per cent of thefts that tourists suffer are from bag snatchers or street sellers, card sharks or people with fake petitions."

Paris is one of the world's most popular cities for tourists and attracted 18 million visitors last year.

Tourists who are the victims of crime are also being given multilingual forms in police stations to lodge their complaints.

A sign outside the Louvre warns of pickpockets. Photo/ 123RF

And bilingual police officers have been deployed on the streets, backed up by French foreign language students, to help distressed tourists.

Earlier this month, French prosecutors revealed a Bosnian gang including an embassy official made almost $5.8 million sending migrant children on to the streets of major French cities including Paris to steal.

They released details of the scam after charging eight alleged ringleaders with a range of crimes including human trafficking, forging documents, money laundering, bribery and theft.

The defendants were able to transport the children to France effortlessly, even though none of them had passports.