Euro 2016 to go ahead in France

French Sports Minister Patrick Kanner said on Tuesday there was "no question" of cancelling Euro 2016 in France despite last week's terrorist attacks in Paris.

"The Euro will be staged in conditions of maximum security, strengthened as a result of the events which we have just lived through.

"There is no question of cancelling this great popular festival," said Kanner, speaking four days after a killing spree in the French capital and Stade de France left 129 dead and hundreds wounded.

"In no case should sport be stopped by terrorism," added Kanner, who was at the national stadium on Friday when it came under attack by suicide bombers during the France-Germany friendly.

"We've shown that we are capable of making our stadia safe and we will draw all the consequences in order to raise the security bar even higher."

Three terrorists blew themselves up outside the Stade on the northern outskirts of Paris during the game. Mass panic among the 80,000 crowd was avoided by the match being allowed to continue, with the crowd eventually dispersing without serious incident.

French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira spoke about the "miraculous alchemy that prevented a massacre" at the national stadium with the terrorists killing one person.

Kanner's comments come less than 24 hours after European football's governing body also insisted it was business as usual as far as the 2016 championships were concerned.

"The Euro final draw will go ahead as scheduled on 12 December at the Palais des Congres in Paris and the final tournament will be played in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016," UEFA said in a statement.

Earlier Tuesday, Junior Sports minister Thierry Braillard announced France's Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 matches would go ahead as scheduled.
Source: AFP