Cologne steps up security for New Year celebrations after Berlin attack

Record ID: 162590

  • Title: Cologne steps up security for New Year celebrations after Berlin attack
  • Date: 28th December 2016
  • Summary: COLOGNE, GERMANY (DECEMBER 28, 2016) (REUTERS) COLOGNE'S POLICE PRESIDENT JUERGEN MATHIES GETTING UP TO GREET COLOGNE MAYOR HENRIETTE REKER REPORTERS SEATED AT NEWS CONFERENCE MATHIES AND REKER SEATED POLICEMEN IN AUDIENCE LISTENING MATHIES WALKING TO PODIUM POLICE EMBLEM ON UNIFORM (SOUNDBITE) (German) COLOGNE POLICE PRESIDENT, JUERGEN MATHIES, SAYING: "We will set up several vehicles, among them 10 trucks and a water canon or two as well as 34 concrete barriers to prevent cars or trucks from entering especially sensitive security areas such as near bridges and the left bank of the Rhine" (river). REPORTERS SEATED PHOTOGRAPHER TAKING PICTURES (SOUNDBITE) (German) COLOGNE POLICE PRESIDENT, JUERGEN MATHIES, SAYING: "We will focus on protecting the many people who intend to celebrate peacefully. We will systematically react to and intervene in dangerous situations or disturbances. This year for the first time we will use video surveillance." PAMPHLET READING IN GERMAN "START THE NEW YEAR WELL! CELEBRATE THE NEW YEAR HAPPILY AND SAFELY IN COLOGNE" REKER WALKING TO PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (German) COLOGNE MAYOR, HENRIETTE REKER, SAYING: "Everyone must be able to celebrate the New Year in Cologne peacefully and safely this year. Of course I am always thinking of the assaulted women who were attacked last year and wish for them that they have been able to overcome the terrible experiences." DETAIL OF BANNER READING: "2017"
  • Embargoed: 12th January 2017 12:48
  • Keywords: Cologne security new year celebrations assaults Berlin truck attack
  • Location: COLOGNE, GERMANY
  • City: COLOGNE, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,International/National Security
  • Reuters ID: LVA0015ESPT8N
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Cologne will step up security ahead of New Year celebrations in response to last week's truck attack in Berlin and a mass assault on women during celebrations last year, the city's police chief said on Wednesday (December 28).
    "We will set up several vehicles, among them 10 trucks and a water canon or two as well as 34 concrete barriers to prevent cars or trucks from entering especially sensitive security areas," Cologne police chief Juergen Mathies told reporters.
    24-year-old Tunisian Anis Amri is suspected of having deliberately ploughed into a crowd of Christmas market visitors with a truck on December 19, killing 12 people and injuring 48 others.
    Amri was shot dead by Italian police after he pulled a gun on them during a routine check in the early hours of Friday (December 23).
    "We will focus on protecting the many people who intend to celebrate peacefully. We will systematically react to and intervene in dangerous situations or disturbances," the police chief said.
    Mathies added that for the first time this year, "we will use video surveillance."
    Nearly two dozen asylum seekers are among those suspected of involvement in mass assaults and muggings on New Year's Eve in Cologne which intensified a debate about Germany's welcome for hundreds of thousands of migrants last year.
    Some 121 women are reported to have been robbed, threatened or sexually molested by gangs of men of foreign descent as revellers partied near the city's twin-spired Gothic cathedral.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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