Austria Ups Border Security over Munich Attack

Local Editor

Austria "significantly" tightened security measures along its border with Germany and put an elite police force on high alert following the Munich mall attack, a government security chief said Friday.

Germany and Austria share hundreds of kilometers of frontier, including along the state of German Bavaria, where the attack occurred.

"Police have significantly increased security measures so they are poised and fully ready to act," public security chief Konrad Kogler told state broadcaster ORF, without elaborating.

He added that 42 elite so-called "Cobra" officers have been dispatched to Munich to assist police in their hunt for gunmen who killed at least eight people in a shooting rampage at a shopping center in Munich.

"The entire Cobra team has been placed on high alert so that they are ready to jump into action," Kogler said.

He added there were "no concrete indications" of an imminent threat in Austria and the current terror threat level has not been increased.

The country has been on raised alert since last January's deadly attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly offices in Paris.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team