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'I Don't Feel Safe': Security (Not) Tightened Up At X-Mas Markets Across France

© REUTERS / Philippe WojazerFrench army soldiers patrol as tourists form a queue at the entrance of the Louvre museum in Paris, France as the French capital is under high security during the UEFA 2016 European Championship
French army soldiers patrol as tourists form a queue at the entrance of the Louvre museum in Paris, France as the French capital is under high security during the UEFA 2016 European Championship - Sputnik International
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As Germany is mourning the victims of the Monday night terrorist attack on a Christmas fair in Berlin, the French Interior Minister ordered to tighten security at Christmas markets across the nation. In an interview with Sputnik, Anthony Caillé, general secretary of CGT Police de Paris trade union federation, said that the measure was not enough.

“National police and the entire security system are unable to make up for what the government is doing abroad, for example in Syria or Iraq. Today we have almost reached the limit of what can be done in our major cities,” Anthony Caillé told Sputnik France.

A Sputnik France correspondent went to a market on Champs-Élysées, the biggest in Paris. Judging from the photographs she made there, an aluminum fence is the only thing that separates the market from the heavy traffic moving up and down the avenue just a meter away.

French police officers secure a Christmas market on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris on December 20, 2016 as part of security measures in the aftermath of an attack in Berlin - Sputnik International
France to Boost Security in Light of Berlin's Christmas Market Attack
Our correspondent asked several passersby if they tried to avoid public places since the terrorist attacks in Nice and Berlin and whether they believed

that the government was doing enough to ensure the security of its citizens.

“Well, maybe I have, but there is nothing I can do about it if I want to go out and have a good time,” a Parisian woman said.

“We won’t lock ourselves in because someone staged a terror attack yesterday. I don’t feel scared, really, especially with all these security measures,” she added.

“Do I feel scared? No, but I keep thinking about it. Life goes on, but we must keep our eyes open. We shouldn’t show them we are afraid. We look around us, but we are not scared,” said another.

When asked if Christmas markets in Paris had become safer places since Monday’s terrorist attack in Berlin, one market-goer said that security had been tight all along.

​“There are many security guards and even more police officers around here, uniformed and plainclothes and this makes me feel safe.”
Others were less optimistic though.

“Police are doing whatever they possibly can, but they can’t be everywhere. If you ask me, I don’t feel safe with this government, that’s for sure,” a man said.

“You see policemen and all these armed people and concrete blocks being set up everywhere, but there is no way you can stop someone who decides to come here and blow himself up,” a third man joined in.

On Monday, a truck ploughed into a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz square, killing 12 people and injuring 49.

Anis Amri, a Tunisian national and the chief suspect in the deadly attack in Berlin was shot and killed by Italian police outside Milan early on Friday, media reports said.

Interior Minister Marco Minniti told reporters that the man killed in a shootout with police was “without a shadow of doubt” the attacker, Anis Amri.

He said the German authorities were informed.

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