Tri-Service

French Army Recruitment Spikes After Paris Attacks

Applications to join the French army have soared since IS attacks on the capital.

According to figures obtained by the newspaper Le Monde, the number of people signing up to join has tripled.

“I’m staggered,” Col Eric de Lapresle, head of the army recruitment service’s marketing and communications department, told the paper. “This is an entirely unprecedented phenomenon.”

People signing up to join the military went up to about 1,500 from an average of 500, a spokeswoman for the French army said.

"The number of people that have contacted us has gone up dramatically since last Friday's attacks." Commanding officer of l'armée de Terre recruitment.

Officers say this spike in recruitment has already exceeded those that already came to sign up following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, and they added that all those that volunteered then, stayed the course.

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Military enlistment often increases following a major attack on a nation, as experienced within the UK following the July 7th bombings, and in the US after 9/11.

A Legion honour guard of the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment stands at attention.

The French army had around 115,000 personnel in 2014, with some 3,000 deployed across Africa.

In the past it has relied heavily on conscription to fill its ranks, but military service was abolished by President Jacques Chirac in 1996 and formally ended in 2001 – although young people must still register with the armed forces for possible conscription if needed.