The Kaiserslautern Christmas market on opening day, Nov. 26, 2018. Following the recent attack in Strasbourg, France, several German states are increasing security measures at their markets. (Ann Pinson/Stars and Stripes)
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Police throughout Germany and especially near U.S. military bases are boosting security at Christmas markets after a deadly attack in the French city of Strasbourg this week.
“At the Christmas markets — especially at the entrances — police will show significantly more open presence” and police officers will visibly carry automatic weapons, said Roger Lewentz, interior minister for Germany’s Rheinland-Pfalz, speaking to parliament on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, a gunman opened fire in the area around the Strasbourg Christmas market, a popular destination for Americans at military bases a short drive over the border in Rheinland-Pfalz, home to tens of thousands of U.S. troops and Defense Department civilians, mainly in the Kaiserslautern area.
While the suspected shooter remained at large, German police were helping search for him along the border, Lewentz said.
The police will increase their presence at large Christmas markets in the cities of Mainz, Ludwigshafen and Trier after a review of security measures initiated in the wake of the attack, an interior ministry spokesman said Thursday.
“We are already on a high security level for our Christmas markets,” spokesman Joachim Winkler said. “But there will definitely be more policemen on the streets (after the attack).”
Security at public gatherings throughout Germany was boosted following a 2016 attack at the Christmas market in Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz that left 12 people dead.
At the Kaiserslautern Christmas market, security measures have not changed from last year’s heightened posture, which involved video surveillance, roadblocks and police patrols, said Bernhard Erfort, a spokesman with the city police.
Uniformed and plainclothes officers help secure the market, Erfort said, and police conduct ID and traffic checks during its run, which began Nov. 26 and ends Dec. 23.
In Stuttgart, home to the headquarters of the U.S. European and Africa commands, security measures “have been adjusted,” said Stephan Widman, a police spokesman. Police trained specially to respond to a terrorist attack or a shooting spree are on the streets, he said.
Security measures in Berlin and Potsdam have also been increased, and in Nuremberg the police were already on high alert prior to the attack, police spokeswoman Elke Schoenwald told the local news outlet Nordbayern.de. The security situation in Germany is still focused on a “high abstract threat” of Islamic extremist violence, Schoenwald said.
