Europe to Bolster Railway Security After Thwarted Train Attack
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Version 0 of 1. PARIS — European countries have agreed to increase security checks in railway stations and on trains, and are calling for improved cooperation among intelligence services, France’s interior minister said Saturday after an emergency meeting of European officials in Paris. The meeting was called after a group of passengers that included two off-duty American servicemen helped thwart a gunman on a high-speed train that was carrying 554 people from Amsterdam to Paris on Aug. 21. The interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, reading from a joint statement after the meeting, said the countries had agreed to increase the number of ID and baggage checks in stations and on trains “when it is necessary,” and to use mixed-nationality police patrols on international lines more often. Mr. Cazeneuve also said the countries would consider ways to ensure that international tickets bear passenger names, and to allow railway police officers to use “relevant databases” when necessary. “Our goal is that different actors at the European level take concrete and ambitious safety and security measures,” Mr. Cazeneuve said. He emphasized that the measures should guarantee an “efficient transborder transportation system.” Officials around Europe are confronted with the difficult task of securing an international rail network of 100,000 trains used by 40 million passengers daily, without hampering its speed and efficiency at shuttling goods and people alike. Metal detectors and baggage scans are used only on certain international lines, like the Eurostar that links Paris to London, and officials worry that extending such comprehensive checks to other lines could clog traffic. Officials from Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland attended the meeting in Paris, as did top European Union transportation, interior and antiterrorism officials. Mr. Cazeneuve said that European intelligence services needed to cooperate more closely, calling for “coordinated and simultaneous operations” on targeted trips and encouraging European police forces to share information on suspects in a common database used by European countries in the 26-nation Schengen Area, which allows free movement across borders. Ayoub El Khazzani, the 25-year old Moroccan suspect in the foiled shooting this month, had been flagged by French and Spanish intelligence services but was nonetheless able to travel extensively around Europe. Shortly before the attack, he bought a first-class ticket in Brussels with cash and no ID before boarding the train with several firearms and ammunition. He was charged with attempted murder in connection with a terrorist act, and the French authorities have opened a formal investigation. Mr. Cazeneuve also urged the European Commission to look into a “targeted modification” of Schengen Area border rules to enable permanent controls “where and only where it is necessary.” Worries about increased security threats and migration flows have put pressure on the open-border system. France’s transportation minister, Alain Vidalies, said after the meeting that France would begin random baggage checks in the coming weeks and increase the number of armed patrols on high-speed trains, according to Agence France-Presse. |