New Year celebrations in the German capital will take place under increased security following the recent terror attack at a Christmas market in the city, like reported by politico.eu.
The sealed celebration zone around the Brandenburg Gate and Tiergarten park in the center of Berlin will be policed by armed guards, with large vehicles and concrete blocks also deployed to stop traffic.
“In cooperation with the organizers and other state authorities, we will ensure your safety at the festival this year. For this purpose the existing safety concepts have been adapted due to the events at Breitscheidplatz [where the Christmas market attack took place on December 19],” the Berlin police posted on Facebook on Thursday.
Around 1,000 police will be on duty, though a similar number were also deployed last year after the November 2015 attacks in Paris raised security concerns.
Berliners are notorious for their love of fireworks on new years eve, often deployed at street level as midnight falls. But pyrotechnics will be barred from the central celebrations in Berlin according to the police.
Since the December 19 attack, in which Tunisian Anis Amri killed 12 by driving a truck into the crowded Breitscheidplatz market in the west of the city center, security has been ratcheted up across Berlin.
