"Volunteer administrative staff from the Ministry of the Interior can indeed take part in the detection of explosives on a voluntary basis, following EOR (Explosive Ordnance Reconnaissance) training," the Ministry of the Interior told AFP on Wednesday, confirming information from France Info.

"The candidates are volunteer civil servants who will be remunerated accordingly for this specific mission," Place Beauvau added, specifying that they "can be mobilized to carry out reinforcement missions according to an internal matching/job exchange procedure."

This decision was outlined in an email sent to all department heads last week, the ministry stressed. It would involve "a few hundred people, but it's still unclear; we're waiting for the text of the regulation", Eric Henry, national delegate of the Alliance Police Nationale union, told AFP.

According to him, the administrative staff recruited by the Bomb Disposal Intervention Group will undergo a one-week (30 hours) training starting in March 

"The trained personnel will carry out checks and filtering of vehicles entering the security perimeter. They will not be deminers, they will be support staff," emphasised Eric Henry, whose union is not opposed to the idea of these volunteers, who will work "five-hour shifts with a gross salary of 120 euros, renewable once a day." 

According to Paris police prefect Laurent Nuñez, an average of 30,000 officers will be mobilised for the Olympics, with a peak of 45,000 for the opening ceremony.