vPrague, Jan 25 (CTK) – A four-degree warning system against terrorism will take effect in Czech Republic under a government decision yesterday, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) told journalists after a cabinet meeting.
The government will declare the individual degrees at the proposal of the interior minister, Sobotka said.
At present, the authorities have no information about any specific threat of an attack in the Czech Republic, Sobotka said on Sunday.
“The government introduced a system of declaring the degrees of threat by terrorism yesterday. There are four degrees. The proposal is submitted by the interior minister,” Sobotka wrote.
The government will declare the individual degrees at the proposal of the interior minister that will arise from a previous proposal by the intelligence, Sobotka said.
The clearly defined scale will facilitate the state’s communication with the public in face of risk of terrorism, Sobotka said.
The particular degrees will be followed by concrete measures taken by the security bodies. The measures cannot be disclosed beforehand so that terrorist cannot prepared for them, Sobotka said.
If there is a danger, the interior minister himself will be able to declare the increased degree. However, his step will have to be confirmed or cancelled by the government within seven days.
The lowest degree of threat will be marked with zero, which is the ideal state with no threat of attack. In this state, no special recommendations or warnings are issued.
The first degree is marked with a yellow triangle that will warn of a general threat by terrorism.
The second degree will be marked with an orange triangle. It will warn of a probable threat by terrorism.
The third degree will be marked with a red triangle, introducing a high degree of alert in which a terrorist attack can be expected with a high probability or it already occurred and it is necessary to prevent its continuation or repetition and the subsequent damage should be minimised.
Sobotka said exercises are to be held to check security bodies’ capability of cooperate in switching to various degrees of alert.
pv,rtj/dr
