[HIGHLIGHTS] Fifty years and four deaths in operation: the secrets of the GIGN to preserve the lives of its men

The National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN) celebrates its 50th anniversary this Friday. In its 50 years of existence, the unit has only lost four men on mission.

Former GIGN operational staff, including its founder Christian Prouteau, look back on the methods used by the elite unit to display such a low human toll after half a century of missions. “The GIGN is never a first responder,” explains a gendarme. The elite group is in fact always called in for reinforcement by local police.