ROME, Dec 18: Italian security services are on high alert after a deadly attack on a Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg last Tuesday, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said.
A total of five people, including a young Italian journalist, were shot to death by a gunman who was later killed by police after a two-day manhunt.
“After the Strasbourg terrorist attack and ahead of Christmas, the National Committee for Order and Security, which I presided over this morning, has decided to increase patrols at train stations and airports and maximum alert for sensitive sites such as monuments and churches,” Salvini, who also serves as deputy prime minister, wrote on Facebook on Monday.
Over 4,300 police units and over 1,400 highway patrols equipped with 800 extra breathalysers will be deployed to make sure speed limits are respected and to catch drunk drivers during the holidays, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
“The level of attention is absolutely high on possible sensitive targets and outdoor Christmas markets,” ANSA quoted Salvini as saying. “There will be 30,000 police officers on the trains from now until Jan. 6. We must continue to live as we always have and we must not change our habits, because that is what the terrorists want.”
Aeroporti di Roma CEO Ugo de Carolis, whose company manages Rome’s two international airports, said in a statement Monday that “we are getting ready to welcome a total of 1.5 million tourists over the Christmas holidays.”
According to data from Italy’s National Tourism Agency (ENIT), hotels in all the major winter tourism destinations — from ski resorts such as Cortina d’Ampezzo and Courmayeur to art-rich cities such as Florence, Rome, and Venice — have reported 95 percent confirmed reservations, with international arrivals expected from the U.S., Russia, France, Germany, Spain, and the UK.
Also on Monday, local media reported that a judge has upheld the pre-trial detention of a 20-year-old Somali man who was arrested in the southern Puglia region last week on suspicion of being a terrorist sympathizer.
Italian security services believe the detainee to be an affiliate of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, and has called for the bombing of Italy’s churches at Christmas in wiretapped conversations, Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.
(AGENCIES)
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