Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies: Prague Post

Czech police tighten security measures

Category: the BIG story

Published: 14 November 2015

Written by Czech News Agency

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New measures at airports, added security at sports events

Updated with new figures and comments

Prague, Nov 14 (ČTK) — The Czech police have tightened security measures over the terrorist attacks in France and the board of the National Security Council (BRS) will meet this afternoon, but the prime minister and interior minister have no information about any similar danger threatening the country.

The terrorist attacks in Paris at night claimed minimally 128 lives and 215 people were injured. Eighty-three of them are in a critical condition.

The Czech police have tightened the protection of shopping centers, international airports and the French embassy in Prague, they said on their web page.

“If it confirms that Islamic State is behind the attack, it is another reason why we should concentrate on the military destruction of Islamic State,” Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, ČSSD) said.

“We must talk to our allies about what can be done for the destruction of Islamic State because this may be an open declaration of war,” he said.

Police spokesman Tomáš Hulan said the police will tighten security measures during the tennis Fed Cup final between the CzechRepublic and Russia that starts in Prague today.

President Miloš Zeman said through his spokesman he has cancelled his long planned visit to the final as an expression of solidarity with France.

Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said the “intelligence group,” comprised of representatives of individual secret services and the police, is meeting this morning.

Flights between the CzechRepublic and France will not be cancelled for the time being, Marika Janoušková, spokeswoman for the VáclavHavelAirport in Prague, told ČTK, but added that security measures at the airport have been tightened.

Kateřina Rendlová, spokeswoman for the foreigner police, told ČTK that the activities of bomb-disposal experts, dog handlers and patrols will be raised at all international airports in the country, particularly in connection with flights from and to France.

“At the same time, we have tightened patrols around detention facilities for foreigners,” Rendlova said, adding that police will more strictly check the outer fencing of the migrant facilities.

She did not say, however, whether the reason are the migrants, or possible attacks by Czech anti-Islam radicals on the facilities.

Detectives from the Squad for Uncovering Organized Crime (ÚOOZ), part of which is the National Contact Point for Terrorism, have been put on alert, police spokeswoman Jana Macalíková said.

The unit focuses on collecting and assessing data on persons reasonably suspected of links to terrorist organizations, Macalíková said.

But she said there is no specific information indicating that the CzechRepublic would be threatened with any attack.

“Nevertheless, we are on alert and we do not underestimate anything,” she said.

Sobotka called on the BIS during the night already to quickly assess all available information.