Hollande tightens security in France
2013-01-12 22:53
Paris - France has ordered tightened security, including
anti-terrorist measures, following action against radical Islamists both in
Mali and Somalia, President Francois Hollande said on Saturday.
Hollande said France "has to take all necessary
precautions" in the face of a terrorist threat, including
"surveillance of our public buildings and our transport network".
The French leader evoked Vigipirate, France's national
security alert system, created in 1978 and updated several times.
The move came after a botched French commando raid in
Somalia to free an intelligence agent which killed at least 18 people including
a French soldier, and also the deployment of French air power to help the army
in Mali stop Islamist rebels from advancing south.
The Vigipirate system defines four levels of threats
represented by five colours: white, yellow, orange, red and scarlet.
The levels call for specific security measures, including
increased police or police-military mixed patrols in subways, train stations
and other vulnerable locations.
The highest level scarlet includes measures that are highly
disruptive to public life. France has maintained a second level, red, since the
London bombings in July 2005.
The top level was briefly in force in France's southwestern
Midi-Pyrenees region after Islamist gunman Mohamed Merah went on a shooting spree
in March last year killing seven people.
