World Cup looks safe from terrorism, says German official

Mar 31, 2006, 16:26 GMT

Berlin - The football World Cup to kick off in 10 weeks in Germany seems safe from terrorism, with no intelligence of any concrete threat, a top German Interior Ministry official said Friday.

'But we are being cautious and we have to be ready to cope if something like that does happen,' said state secretary August Hanning as a two-day conference in Berlin ended. The meeting was attended by police from all 32 nations taking part in the sporting mega-event.

'We are fairly confident this World Cup will be a safe one,' said Hanning.

German security agencies hope to put cordons up when crowds watch World Cup games free on huge video screens away from the grounds, he said. The 12 hosting cities will be setting up the public screens for fans who cannot obtain tickets to the stadiums.

Limiting the number of entry points to public squares and monitoring the crowds on them with closed-circuit television cameras would heighten security, according to Hanning.

The screens will show television broadcasts of the games and give crowds the feeling of being part of the live event.

While the Germans see no evidence of terrorist bomb attacks, they are busily collecting intelligence about football hooligans.

Britain has slapped a travel ban on 4,000 young men with a reputation for violence at football games, and there are fears about a growing culture of football hooliganism in eastern Europe.

Hanning said authorities had been alarmed by a recent brawl between German and Polish hooligans that took place in a German forest east of Berlin, and are to coordinate closely with Polish police.

The violence-plagued 1998 World Cup in France had offered painful proof of the danger from the hooligans. In the worst incident, several visiting German youths attacked one French policeman and kicked him. The victim, Daniel Nivel, has never fully recovered.

'We're going to try to avoid any violent clashes between fans,' said the state secretary.

Police from several countries including South Korea and England will be on duty in Germany during the World Cup. Hanning said that under German law, those from European Union nations would have powers of arrest and the right to use force or give orders.

On Thursday, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Germany plans to reintroduce border checks during the World Cup as a precaution against terrorism and crime.

Normally, EU citizens arriving from Austria, Denmark, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg do not need to show their passports when entering Germany.

Around 280 delegates attended the two-day conference. The 64-match tournament begins June 9.