Elite agents sent to protect French president François Hollande at the Rio Earth summit forgot to pack their guns, it emerged today.
In scenes reminiscent of the bumbling Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther films, highly trained members of the GSPR (Security Group of the Presidency of the Republic) thought they had placed their weapons in secure suitcases. They hadn’t.
So unless they managed to borrow weapons from the Brazilians — the country has a serious gun crime issue — the agents wearing sunglasses and earpieces around Mr Hollande would have had fake guns in their shoulder holsters.
An officer told the French investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaîné: “As far as anyone can remember, this was the first time this has happened.”
The agent responsible for the fiasco was sacked.
