Top anti-terror unit packing shotguns & battering rams deployed to PSG v Barca

FRANCE'S most elite anti-terrorist unit has been drafted in for tonight's Champions League clash in Paris following ISIS' threat to attack the game.

The heavily-armed specialist officers from the Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI) are being deployed to guard the Paris Saint-Germain versus Barcelona quarter-final.

A highly-placed Interior Ministry source in Paris said: "Officers from the BRI, under the jurisdiction of the Paris Police Prefecture, will support the police deployed inside the Parc des Princes perimeter."

But the deployment of the fearsome BRI - who usually arrive armed to the teeth with battering rams on standby - shows how seriously France is taking ISIS' threats on their stadium.

It follows threats made by an Afghanistan-based splinter cell of the Islamic State, the so-called ISIS-K, against four stadiums in London, Madrid and Paris who are hosting the quarter-final matches this week.

ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the barbaric Moscow terror attack at Crocus City Hall on March 22 that left 144 dead - which sparked France to raise its threat level to the highest.

While the Arsenal versus Bayern Munich match at the Emirates Stadium passed off peacefully last night, the French will be significantly "reinforcing" its existing security operation at the Parc des Princes.

The BRI was originally created to deal with violent gangs in the 1960s, but began to focus on terrorist groups in 2015, following the murderous ISIS attacks on Paris.

Suicide bombers claimed 130 lives, and wounded hundreds of others, in a lethal night of violence that started at the Stade de France, where the France football team were playing Germany.

Referring to today's game, a Paris police source said: "Beyond anti-terrorism units, there