Police forces in several
European capitals say that they have been advised by a “friendly” intelligence
service of the possibility of fresh terror attacks launched before the New
Year, Homeland Security News Wire reports.
The reports did not name
specific capitals, but security measures in Vienna, Austria, have been
strengthened. The Austrian police said they were responding to concrete
information about the possibility of an attack between Christmas and the New
Year which would take place in “crowded places.”
“Several possible names of
potential attackers were mentioned, which were checked, and the investigation
based on [these checks] has so far yielded no concrete results,” Vienna police
said in a statement.
“In the days before Christmas a
warning was sent out by a friendly [intelligence] service to numerous European
capitals, saying that it could come to an attack involving explosives or a
shooting between Christmas and the New Year in crowded spaces.”
Christph Polzl, a spokesman for
the Austrian police service, told the Guardian that “We do not know if these
people exist in real life, or if they are only names with no real person behind
them.
“We have no evidence they are
in Vienna, and we have no evidence that they are even in Europe,” he said.
Vienna police have asked
Austrians living or visiting the capital between this past weekend and next for
patience and understanding with increased security measures, which include
electronic and human surveillance in crowded places “especially at events and
traffic hubs,” in addition to intensive identity checks, random searches of
shopping bags and backpacks, and a higher alertness for objects that could
carry explosives, such as “bicycle frames.”
The authorities stressed that
no events will be cancelled.
The German Interior Ministry’s
spokesman said it was his offices policy not to comment on specific situations
because f operational considerations.
“Germany is still in the
crosshairs of Jihadist terrorism,” he said, adding the country had reviewed and
adapted its security measures, where necessary, following the Paris attacks.
France is still under a
3-months state of emergency which the government announced in the wake of the
terrorist attacks on 13 November which killed 132 people.
Culled from: i-HLS
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