"The intensification of the hotbeds of crisis on Europe's borders, in particular after the attack on Israel, has indeed increased the level of threat of violent actions even within the Union." This is how a note from Palazzo Chigi explains the decision to reintroduce controls at the border with Slovenia. "A picture further aggravated by the constant migratory pressure to which Italy is subjected, by sea and by land (140 thousand arrivals on the Italian coasts, +85% compared to 2022)," it adds.
Threats of the presence of bombs reached several French airports in the morning, which were evacuated for checks. It happened at the airports of Lille, Lyon and Toulouse, which were evacuated. Nice airport had also received a threat but the alert has already ended: it was an abandoned piece of luggage that was promptly removed.
Two of the French airports closed due to threats have already been able to reopen and are operating normally: Nice and Nantes. Lille, Lyon, Toulouse and Beauvais remain closed for checks.
The airport of Ostend in Belgium was evacuated due to a bomb scare following an email threatening the presence of ordnance also sent to the French airports of Lille, Lyon and Toulouse, which in turn were evacuated. In Ostend, about fifty airport employees had to leave the building, while about 150 passengers who landed at the time of the alert on a Tui flight are now stuck on board waiting for verification operations to be completed. The airport is currently undergoing a full search and security services are busy monitoring the situation.
The Palace of Versailles has reopened, after 3 hours of closure, forced for the third time in 5 days to evacuate visitors due to a bomb alert. The checks have been mandatory since Friday, when - after the murder of Professor Dominique Bernard by a Chechen in Arras - the government raised the Vigipirate anti-terrorism plan to its highest level. As in the other cases, nothing abnormal was found and the authorities concluded that it was a new "false alarm".
Video France, bomb alarm at the Palace of Versailles
Italy reinstates controls with Slovenia from 21 October
Slovenian Interior Minister Bostjan Poklukar was informed by his Italian counterpart Matteo Piantedosi that Italy has decided to implement temporary border controls with Slovenia due to the changing situation in Europe and the Middle East. The aim of the measure, as Piantedosi explained in Poklukar, is the "prevention of terrorism and organized crime", reads a statement from the Slovenian Interior Minister. Poklukar, for his part, stressed to his Italian counterpart the importance of the "temporariness and proportionality of this measure" and asked that the measures be "proportionate and friendly towards our citizens, so as not to break the cultural, friendship and family ties of people living along the border," the press release reads. The two ministers also agreed that the police chiefs of the two countries will meet soon to decide how and where to implement the measure. Slovenia, according to unofficial information released by the STA, will implement similar border controls with Croatia and Hungary.
The reintroduction of internal border controls with Slovenia "will be implemented from 21 October for a period of 10 days, extendable pursuant to EU Regulation 2016/339. The control arrangements will be implemented in a way that ensures the proportionality of the measure, adapted to the threat and calibrated to cause the least possible impact on cross-border movement and freight traffic. Further developments in the situation and effectiveness of the measures will be continuously analysed, in the hope of a rapid return to full free movement." This was announced by Palazzo Chigi.
"In the national assessments, the police measures at the Italian-Slovenian border are not adequate to guarantee the required security." This is stated in the note from Palazzo Chigi on the reintroduction of border controls with Slovenia, which explains that the scenario "also subject to in-depth analysis by the Anti-Terrorism Strategic Analysis Committee set up at the Ministry of the Interior, confirms the need for further strengthening of prevention and control measures".
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