The days when most police officers are on duty in Austria: New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Minister of the Interior Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) knows that this will also be the case this year. The risk situation remains high. People want to learn from attacks like those in Magdeburg. But the focus is also on illegal fireworks.
“I assure you at this point that the police will do everything humanly possible to ensure the safety of the population,” Karner said at a news conference on Monday. They want to take ‘strong’ action against perpetrators and rioters, remove them from circulation and punish them. When it comes to extremism, people should be on guard; the terror alert level remains at 4 out of 5.
Overall, preparations had been going on for weeks, with the uniformed men working with state security and with special and special forces units.
The New Year’s Eve trail will be the center of the activities
Neither Karner nor Federal Police Director Michael Takács would reveal how many police officers would be on duty. But you are sufficiently rested. The main focus of the activities is on the Vienna New Year’s Eve route, Karner emphasized. Not only officers from Vienna, but also emergency trains from Burgenland, Lower Austria, Salzburg and Carinthia are deployed here. Special and operational units would take visible action, similar to the Christmas markets, but civilian researchers and new technical resources such as drones would also be deployed.
Sylvia Mayer, deputy head of the State Security and Intelligence Directorate (DSN), explained that Islamist terrorism and extremism had preoccupied the state security department most over the past year. She remembered the prevented attacks on Taylor Swift’s concerts in Vienna and the arrest in Salzburg in early December. There are currently no specific hazard warnings for New Year’s Eve. However, at events with a great symbolic value, an acute danger can always be assumed.
“Firecrackers are not mischievous”
The police also keep an eye out for illegal fireworks and firecrackers. There are clear rules, the illegal use is not a trivial offense, according to Interior Minister Karner: “These are not mischievous pranks, they can become a deadly danger.”
According to Takács, there is a danger of organ mandates for which 30 to 50 euros are due, reminders of up to 3,600 euros and traders of up to 10,000 euros in fines for selling illegal fireworks or for selling them to people without permission. About 10,000 illegal objects have been seized since November, including 1.3 to 1.4 tons of “nearly explosive material.”
Source: Krone
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