Policemen at Cairo’s metro will “attentively inspect bags” of passengers, per instructions by Assistant Interior Minister for the transportation department El-Sayed Gad el-Haq directed, who visited the central station of Sadat Sunday, Youm7 reported.
“We are planning to use jamming devices [at metro stations] to combat planted bombs,” Youm7 quoted Gad el-Haq. According to him, many assailants who attacked public transportation utilities have been arrested.
Sadat Metro station, which lies beneath the iconic Tahrir Square, was closed for 22 months for “security reasons.” Hundreds of explosive devices have detonated and been neutralized on Egypt’s streets since the 2013 ouster of President Mohamed Morsi.
Gad el-Haq stressed that police forces tasked with searching bags at metro stations using X-Rays “must be alert.”
He also noted that citizens play an important role in reporting and detecting suspicious objects.
Violent groups target vital utilities because “railways, metro trains and public buses are serving a wide spectrum of citizens, where targeting them with bombs and explosives halt services and lead to a negative economic impact,” Gad el-Haq said in an interview with Youm7.
Officers and security personnel were granted training courses on handling strange bodies, inspecting and neutralizing them, he added.
Sadat metro station was closed after the August 2013 dispersal of the Rabaa al-Adaweya Islamist sit-in and opened June 17, 2015 after measures were taken to secure the station; electronic gates and surveillance cameras have been installed, police dogs and bomb squad forces have been deployed.
