NYE: Peak Security in Europe

Local Editor

Following last week's Berlin attack, European capitals are ramping up security for Saturday night.

European capitals tightened security on Friday ahead of New Year's celebrations, erecting concrete barriers in city centers and boosting police numbers after the Daesh [ISIS/ISIL] attack in Berlin last week that killed 12 people.

In the German capital, police closed the Pariser Platz square in front of the Brandenburg Gate and prepared to deploy 1,700 extra officers, many along a party strip where armored cars will flank concrete barriers blocking off the area.

"Every measure is being taken to prevent a possible attack," Berlin police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf told Reuters TV. Some police officers would carry sub-machine guns, he said, an unusual tactic for German police.

Last week's attack in Berlin, in which a Tunisian man plowed a truck into a Christmas market, has prompted German lawmakers to call for tougher security measures.

In Milan, where police shot the man dead, security checks were set up around the main square. Trucks were banned from the centers of Rome and Naples. Police and soldiers cradled machine guns outside tourist sites including Rome's Colosseum.

Madrid plans to deploy an extra 1,600 police on the New Year weekend. For the second year running, access to the city's central Puerta del Sol square, where revelers traditionally gather to bring in the New Year, will be restricted to 25,000 people, with police setting up barricades to control access.

In Cologne in western Germany, police have installed new video surveillance cameras to monitor the station square.

In Frankfurt, home to the European Central Bank and Germany's biggest airport, more than 600 police officers will be on duty on New Year's Eve, twice as many as in 2015.

In Brussels, where terrorist suicide bombers killed 16 people and injured more than 150 in March, the mayor was reviewing whether to cancel New Year fireworks, but decided this week that they would go ahead.

Ahead of New Year's Eve, heavily armed soldiers patrolled popular Paris tourist sites such as the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre museum.

Across France, more than 90,000 police including 7,000 soldiers will be on duty for New Year's Eve, authorities said.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team