Europe ‘at war’ as security tightened
Print Edition
AUTHORITIES in Europe and across the world tightened security at airports, railway stations, government buildings and other key sites after yesterday’s deadly attacks in Brussels.
With the Belgian capital on lockdown and the French prime minister saying Europe is “at war,” European leaders held emergency security meetings and deployed more police, explosives experts, sniffer dogs and plainclothes officers, with some warning against travel to Belgium.
The nervousness was felt far and wide. While there were no credible threats to US airports or transport hubs, police presence was beefed up as a precaution in the nation’s major cities, including New York, Washington and Los Angeles.
US airlines including Delta, United and American canceled flights following the blasts.
After a string of extremist attacks targeting the heart of Europe over the past year, some analysts say Europe will finally have to implement a much tougher level of security not only at airports, but also at “soft targets” like shopping malls — the kind that Israelis have been living with for years.
“The threat we are facing in Europe is about the same as what Israel faces,” said Olivier Guitta, managing director of GlobalStrat, an international security consultancy. “We have entered an era in which we are going to have to change our way of life and take security very seriously.”
There was strong criticism of Belgian security yesterday from Pini Schiff, a former security director at Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport, which is considered among the most secure in the world. After Palestinian attacks on Israeli planes and travelers in the 1970s, Israeli officials put in place several layers of security at the Tel Aviv airport, meaning an attacker who escapes notice at one level of security would likely be captured by another.
Schiff said the attacks at the Brussels airport mark “a colossal failure” of Belgian security and that “the chances are very low” such a bombing could have happened in Israel.
There are some, however, who fear little more can be done.
“The public needs to understand that if we are to continue enjoy living in a free society we have to respond in a proportional way,” said Simon Bennett, director of the Civil Safety and Security Unit at England’s University of Leicester. “In my opinion, airport security is as tight as we can reasonably make it in a free society.”
In Moscow, Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov told Russian news agencies that authorities will “re-evaluate security” at Russian airports, although its measures are already some of the toughest across Europe. There have been mandatory checks at entrances to airports since a 2011 suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport that killed 37.
Security was high at all Paris airports and at Gatwick and Heathrow in London yesterday, among many others.
At Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, sniffer dogs were deployed in check-in areas, while at Milan’s Malpensa airport police in carts were patrolling the areas before security checks.
In Germany, the state rail system, Deutsche Bahn, halted its high-speed rail service from Germany to Brussels.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
