World Courant
Cologne’s police chief says sniffer canines will search the constructing following indications of a deliberate assault on New 12 months’s Eve.
German police searched a cathedral within the western metropolis of Cologne amid warnings of a doable assault deliberate for New 12 months’s Eve.
Cologne police chief Michael Esser mentioned on Saturday that Cologne Cathedral can be closed and that sniffer canines can be used to look the constructing after night mass.
“Though the data pertains to New 12 months’s Eve, beginning tonight we’re doing all the pieces we will to make sure the security of tourists to the cathedral on Christmas Eve,” Esser mentioned in an announcement.
Guests should endure safety checks earlier than getting into the cathedral on Sundays.
German newspaper Bild reported that authorities in Germany, Austria and Spain had all obtained indications that an Islamist group was plotting assaults in Europe, with doable targets together with Christmas lots in Cologne, Vienna and Madrid.
On Saturday, particular forces in Vienna and Germany arrested quite a few suspects, Bild additionally reported.
Al Jazeera couldn’t independently affirm the arrests.
Austrian police mentioned in an announcement that they had been growing safety at church buildings and Christmas markets because of the heightened state of alert.
“On condition that terrorist actors throughout Europe are calling for assaults on Christian occasions, particularly round December 24, safety authorities have taken corresponding safety measures in public areas,” police mentioned in an announcement.
Earlier this month, Spain’s Inside Ministry introduced it might step up safety measures forward of the Christmas holidays.
Cologne Cathedral, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Website in 1996, is one in every of Germany’s hottest vacationer points of interest, attracting greater than six million guests yearly.
German police search Cologne Cathedral after safety risk | Information
Africa Area Information ,Subsequent Massive Factor in Public Knowledg
