Christmas markets ensured against terror – get a visit from the PET each year

It is difficult to say christmas without saying the christmas market, and it is difficult to visit a christmas market without realizing the huge concrete blocks

Christmas markets ensured against terror – get a visit from the PET each year

It is difficult to say christmas without saying the christmas market, and it is difficult to visit a christmas market without realizing the huge concrete blocks that stand in each end of the many stalls.

three years ago drove a truck into a christmas market in Berlin and killed 12 people, almost 50 were injured. And on Wednesday completed the Danish police a big action, where 21 people were arrested for suspicion of planning terror.

Therefore, it is not so strange that the Danish markets are doing what they can to avoid a terrorist attack.

B. T. has spoken to a number of christmas markets over the country, that tells that each year before the first day receives the visit of the PET and the police.

"It is some security measures that we take every year, and as both the police, the PET and the municipality of checking up on," says Henrik Mortensen, the organizer of the christmas market on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen.

the head of tourism in Nyborg Sanne Andresen votes in:

"It's the police, who assess how the christmas market can be best achieved, and so live we, of course, their requests."

She and the other spokespersons for the christmas markets the country over – elaborates that, for example, use of guards, first-aiders and hastighedsnedsættende shut-off, so no cars can drive into the markets.

"There is no doubt that the terrorist attacks, who was in Berlin in 2016, changed much. After the attack we upgraded our security very much," says Henrik Kragh, the organizer of the H. C. Andersen Christmas market in Odense.

Then a truck drove directly into a christmas market in Germany's capital and killed 12 people.

However, evaluate Michael Deutsch, the organizer of the christmas market Central Market in Copenhagen, that the threat this year is less than in the past.

"It has been the same the last eight years, so there is nothing new there. In fact, we have fewer roadblocks up than the former, because the whole of the long side is flanked by trees, so there needed betonklodserne not," he says.

At the christmas market in Copenhagen, Viborg has also a little less preparedness than we have had before.

"We were a little bit of extra preparedness last year, but has turned down slightly in the year, because it has been assessed that the threat is not as big."

How does it sound from Ove Jensen, project coordinator at Viborg Municipality and responsible for the security at the christmas market.

Date Of Update: 13 December 2019, 06:00
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