France sees surge in army recruitment enquiries after attacks

(Reuters) - Requests for information about joining the French army have surged following the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, military officials said on Friday. Colonel Herve Chene, head of airforce recruitment, said the numbers visiting his unit's hiring centers had tripled since Islamist militants killed at least 130 people a week ago. Clicks on his unit's recruitment website had shot up too. "Under normal circumstances, our website gets 2,000 visits per day. Now we have over 20,000," Chene told Reuters. "All of the armed forces are seeing increased numbers." Commandant Reynald Tambour at Paris's airforce recruitment center said inquiries about joining had risen from five or six a day normally to more than 20 in the last few days. The attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers on cafes and a concert hall packed with rock fans in Paris and outside the Stade de France sports stadium on the northern outskirts of the capital were the most deadly in France since World War Two. (Reporting by Alan Charlish; Editing by Brian Love and Catherine Evans)