Italy Raises Highest Level at Tourist Ports

Italy raised the security level at its tourist ports on Thursday, a coastguard spokesman said, meaning intensified controls of people and vehicles during the height of the summer tourist season.

News ID: 68159

Date: 23 August 2016 - 10:50

According to MANA, Coastguard Admiral Vincenzo Melone sent a letter ordering passenger and cruise-ship ports to raise their alert level to 2 from 1, the spokesman said. The coastguard gave no reason for the move.

Italy’s national security alert level was already at 2, the highest possible level in absence of a direct attack, following Islamist attacks in France and Belgium last year.

After the Nice attack last month in which more than 80 people were run down by a delivery truck, Italy increased border controls, and Rome last week boosted security at the Colosseum and Vatican after a French priest was murdered in his church.