To test Euro 2016 security

President Francois Hollande vowed Thursday to take "all necessary measures" to ensure the smooth running of the Euro 2016 football tournament in strike-hit France, as bags of uncollected rubbish piled up in Paris streets.

The run-up to Europe's four-yearly football extravaganza has been blighted by strikes and street protests over the French government's controversial labour reforms.

Security concerns also loom large over the event after last year's jihadist attacks in Paris, and organisers faced their first major challenge late Thursday with a giant concert at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

As hundreds of thousands of fans began pouring into the capital ahead of the football, a train strike rumbled into its ninth day and bags of household rubbish were piling up on the streets of the French capital -- as temperatures rose to 24 degrees Celsius (77 Fahrenheit).

Rail workers have threatened fresh disruption on Friday on the lines serving the Stade de France, in northern Paris, where the hosts face Romania in the opening game.

On the eve of the inaugural match, Hollande said the government was prepared to "take all necessary measures" to host and transport spectators, insisting that "public services will be provided".

"I will be paying close attention tomorrow and if decisions need to be made, they will be made," Hollande said. "The whole of Europe will be watching," he added.

Superstar French DJ David Guetta was to kick off the festivities on Thursday night with a free performance in the 90,000-capacity fan zone -- the first test of the massive security operation to guard the tournament just seven months after coordinated Islamic State attacks in Paris killed 130 people.

Music lovers arriving for the performance were made to walk through two checkpoints before entering the open-air concert.

France has mustered up to 90,000 police and private guards to provide security for the month-long tournament.

- 'France's pride is at stake' -

Environment Minister Segolene Royal appealed to unions to end their disruption, warning they were endangering the image of France, which is bidding to host the 2024 Olympics.

She told iTele it was "not right for a modern country to continue being permanently disrupted".

"France's pride is at stake," Royal said. "Let's not harm France's capacity to organise global events."

Nearly 3,000 tonnes of waste have gone uncollected in Paris, according to the authorities, with nearly a third of rubbish truck drivers on strike and unions blockading incineration plants, preventing collections.

"The situation has worsened since yesterday," one of Paris' deputy mayors, Bruno Julliard, admitted.

Zahier, a waiter in a restaurant in the Latin Quarter where rubbish spilled out of bins into the narrow, cobbled streets, said: "Customers are looking out at the dustbins, so obviously it's making them lose their appetite."

Unsightly mounds of waste were also building up in the southern city of Marseille, which will host four Euro 2016 matches, including England's high-profile clash with Russia on Saturday.

In another headache for organisers, Air France pilots have called for a four-day strike starting on Saturday, when an estimated two million foreign fans will begin arriving in earnest.

The latest round of negotiations broke down on Thursday.

Air France chief executive Frederic Gagey promised however that between 70 percent and 80 percent of flights would operate on Saturday.

The situation is reminiscent of 1998, when Air France pilots grounded planes for 10 days ahead of the football World Cup hosted by France. A last-minute solution was only found to that dispute on the day the tournament began.

Hollande has refused to back down on the unions' demands to withdraw the labour reforms, arguing the measures are necessary to cut stubbornly high unemployment.

- 'Refuse to think of risk' -

As the France team arrived in Paris from their training base, authorities were taking no chances with security.

France remains a top target for the Islamic State (IS) group and warnings from the United States and Britain that the tournament could be a target have only added to the sense of nervousness.

After Thursday's concert the focus will shift to the Stade de France, where three Islamic State members blew themselves up in the November 13 carnage, which also targeted a concert hall and several cafes and restaurants.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve confirmed Wednesday that 300 people had been barred from serving in the private security teams after vetting showed they had been radicalised.

The arrest of a Frenchman with alleged far-right sympathies in possession of an arsenal of weapons in Ukraine on Monday caused new jitters.

Ukraine said the 25-year-old, identified in France as Gregoire Moutaux, was planning to attack locations including mosques and synagogues before and during the tournament.

Source: AFP