Italy deploys snipers to ensure security on New Year's Eve

(Baonghean.vn)- Italian police are currently on high alert nationwide to ensure public safety during the New Year, especially in major cities like Rome and Milan.

In the capital Rome, a city police representative said security was strictly controlled at crowded places such as the Colosseum area, the Circus Maximus stadium and all squares in the center of the capital.

Italian police march at Leonardo de Vinci airport in Fiumicino near Rome. Photo: AP

Police in Rome have stepped up security for 24 hours, setting up five checkpoints at the New Year's Eve celebrations. Snipers have also been deployed on rooftops and behind large flower beds that serve as barriers to traffic in the capital. Security at the Vatican remains at the same high level as it was at Christmas.

In Milan, Italy's economic and financial center, in addition to the usual security measures, about 40 plainclothes police officers, equipped with special smartphones using LTE technology, were also deployed throughout the city to transmit real-time images of the scene to the command center.

Italian authorities fear terrorist attacks on New Year's Eve. Photo: AP

Italy is still on security alert level 2, the highest level in the absence of a terrorist attack, since the series of terrorist attacks in Paris (France) in November 2015.

Italy, and especially its capital Rome, has long been a target of terrorist attacks.

Lan Ha

(According to AFP)