HOLIDAY BRITS GET BEACH GUN GUARD
23,000 to defend Isis hit targets
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ARMED police will guard holidaymakers on French beaches to prevent terror attacks.
An extra 23,000 troops and officers will be deployed to resorts, festivals, stations and airports.
Council chiefs in Cannes have banned backpacks and other big, non-transparent bags from beaches.
The move comes after the Islamic State truck attacker killed 84 people in nearby Nice.
An 85-year-old priest was murdered at the altar during morning mass in Normandy on Tuesday.
French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said reinforcements will be deployed at 56 tourism events across the country.
Up to 3.1million Brits are expected to visit France this summer.
But the French security services were criticised last night after it was revealed one of Father Jacques Hamel’s killers was on a terror watchlist.
Tip-off
Abdel Malik Petitjean, 19, was the subject of a tip-off received by French authorities last Friday.
Petitjean teaming up with Adel Kermiche, also 19, to butcher the priest. They were shot dead by police. Kermiche was wearing an electronic tag at the time after being twice previously jailed for terror crimes.
Petitjean’s distraught mum Yamina, 45, last night refused to believe her son was a jihadi, insisting that it was “impossible” she could have given birth to “the devil”.
Six convicted Islamist terrorists and seven suspects are currently on the loose in France with electronic tags, it was revealed last night.
Yesterday former Navy head Admiral Lord West of Spithead warned Isis could use drones to carry out a terror attack in the UK.