Prague, April 19 (CTK) – The Czech government approved on Wednesday a plan of enhancing the protection of places with a high concentration of people against terrorist attacks, including preventive measures such as an information campaign and instruction courses, PM Bohuslav Sobotka has tweeted.
According to the concept drafted by the Interior Ministry, the state and society must prepare for a potential terrorist attack, in view of attackers’ current tendency to hit easily accessible targets.
The new plan is another step the government has taken to enhance security in face of new threats, Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) wrote.
A part of the plan is the creation of a national system of soft targets protection that would enable a complex and rapid reaction to threatening attacks.
Its another goal is to make most of the soft targets capable of reacting to an attack in a way to maximally reduce the inflicted damage.
Soft targets are places with a high concentration of people that have not been permanently protected and are easily accessible, such as shopping, cultural and sports centres, hospitals, clubs, schools, tourist sights and public transport premises.
The ministry plans to establish an advisory team including representatives of ministries, self-governing regions and towns and associations of big cultural and other events’ organisers.
A series of instruction courses is to be launched along with instruction materials available to the public.
The courses will be designated for members of the law enforcement bodies who will be in contact with organisers of events and will provide assistance to them.
The courses are to be freely available for anyone who will show interest in them.
An information campaign will also be launched.
The plan’s last point is the early distribution of warning information.
“The previous attacks in the world evidently showed that an attack was followed by another in the same locality, either simultaneously or with a slight delay,” the ministry writes in the concept.
A permanent police phone line has been operating in the Czech Republic in connection with soft targets since last year, giving security advice to owners and operators of publicly accessible sites and organisers of sports, cultural and other events.
Last year, the government approved an anti-terrorist package of measures aimed to reduce the risk of a terrorist attack.
