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Paris will host its first ever Paralympic Games on 28 August and the games are to begin with an opening ceremony right in the heart of the city.

Here's everything you need to know.

What are the Paralympic Games? Find out here.

The Paralympic Games opening ceremony is due to start at 8pm in Paris, which is 7pm in the UK, tonight.

4,400 Paralympic athletes from 184 delegations will come together to celebrate the start of 11 days of competition.

Just like the Olympic ceremony, the Paralympic ceremony will break with tradition and take place not in a stadium but in the streets.

The athletes will parade down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées before arriving at the Place de la Concorde.

"What an incredible moment for our athletes, who will be part of a historic Opening Ceremony, on the world’s most famous avenue, surrounded by all the charm of Paris," Jitske Visser, Paralympic wheelchair basketball medallist, IPC Athletes’ Commission President and competitior at Paris 2024 said.

The artistic director Thomas Jolly, who also put together the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, has said the spectacle will "showcase the Paralympic athletes and the values that they embody".

He also promised "performances that have never been seen before" in a "spectacle that will unite spectators and television audiences worldwide around the unique spirit of the Paralympic Games”.

Dance is expected to be a key feature of the spectacle with over a hundred dancers - many using crutches, wheelchairs, or adapted tricycles - taking part.

For people in Paris, the first part of the ceremony will be open to the public to watch live for free.

Organisers say 65,000 people are expected to watch the opening ceremony live.

In the UK the event will be available to watch on Channel 4 with coverage starting at 6.30pm.

The Paralympic flame was lit in the village of Stoke Mandeville in England.

It then made its way to France where it was split into twelve flames.

The flames travelled around the country before arriving in Paris.

Martial artist and actor Jackie Chan has been announced as one of the torchbearers for Wednesday just ahead of the ceremony.

The Paralympic flames will make their final appearance during the opening ceremony, where they will be used to light the cauldron to symbolise the start of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.