Concerns grow over security, attacks during holiday seasons

World Today

In the wake of the attack in Berlin, there’s growing concern that crowded streets and shopping malls anywhere can provide “opportunity” for violent extremists during this holiday season. Those concerns grow exponentially when you’re talking about a big city like New York.

CCTV America’s John Terrett reports.

Back in November, U.S. authorities issued a somber warning to Americans to be on their guard in the run-up to Christmas around well-known sites.

A bulletin from the Department of Homeland Security read, “The holiday season, in particular, provides additional opportunities for violent extremists to target public events and places where people congregate.”

According to analysts, the main worry is the lone wolf terrorist, acting without formal backing from ISIL or any other extremist group, as we’ve seen with the attack on a Christmas market in Berlin this week.

Last July in Nice, France, a man barreled a truck into a packed crowd near the waterfront, killing more than 80 people before he was gunned down by police. ISIL called him “a soldier of the Islamic State”, but hinted it had no prior knowledge of the plot.

So, what are police doing to head-off attacks In the case of trucks used as weapons? Professor McCrie from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice said officers have been to almost every rental site and many dealerships in the area for a quiet word with managers.

However, he stresses terror attacks are extremely rare.