POLICE are to install security barriers at key sites in Edinburgh ahead of next month’s festivals, in a bid to prevent “vehicle-as-a-weapon” terrorist attacks.
The force say there is no specific intelligence to suggest the Festival, the Fringe or the tattoo “are at risk from a terrorist attack” but “the threat to the United Kingdom from internationally inspired terrorism remains at ‘severe’.”
This they say means “an attack is highly likely”.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe kicks off its 70th year next week. It’s the world’s largest arts festival, with tens of thousands of performers attracting hundreds of thousands of fans to around 300 venues all over the city.
Every August, the Fringe, the Edinburgh International Festival, also celebrating its 70th year, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, the book festival, and the art festival are responsible for the population of the capital effectively doubling.
Huge crowds gather on the Royal Mile during the day for the Fringe’s High Street performances, and at night as crowds enter and exit the castle for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
Police are worried this could be a prime target for the sort of terrorist attack seen recently in Nice, Berlin, and London.
The force applied to the Home Office to install the National Barrier Asset (NBA) at certain city centre locations as part of their “holistic security plan for this year’s event”.
“The NBA is a temporary deployed system including high security gates, portals and barriers, which are designed to prevent hostile vehicle attacks on key or busy crowded place locations,” Police Scotland’s Edinburgh division wrote on their Facebook page.
The security barriers have been used at other major events in the UK including Wimbledon and the European Cup Final in Cardiff.
Aspokeswoman for City of Edinburgh Council said: “There is no intelligence to suggest a threat but it is appropriate we put safety first and protect large crowds of people at key times during the year.”
Summerhall, one of the Fringe’s biggest sites, has sent staff on anti-terrorist training, so far the only venues at this year’s festival to do so.
Sam Gough from Summerhall said: “Safety of all those on site during a busy festival is very important to us, all our artists and audiences.”
Some of the comedians attending this year’s festival weren’t too worried about the terrorist threat.
“Impossible to be scared of terrorists when you’ve died as many times as I have,” said Ray Bradshaw, whose show Deaf Comedy Jam is on at the Gilded Balloon.
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