The Mediterranean city of Marsa Matrouh will incorporate extensive security measures including surveillance cameras, extra officers and youth to monitor road flow to secure holidaymakers,by Matrouh security director Hisham Lotfy.
In an interview with Youm7, Lotfy also cited procedures the governorate is taking along with the armed forces to curb attempts of illegal immigration and smuggling that usually take place at the city’s border with Libya.
He noted that the directorate has requested funds from the Interior Ministry to introduce more security officers; 60 criminal investigators, 25 traffic officers and 15 civil protection forces, in addition to bomb squad experts in the governorate.
“This year, there will be trained special forces on beach buggies traversing beaches to secure citizens, as well as other patrol forces on motorcycles that are dubbed “The Storm,” with the aim to send a sense of safety and security to the people on the streets,” added Lotfy.
Youth will also be engaged in the security work planned in the governorate, according to Lotfy, who said that there will be groups of civilians called “Police Friends” who will participate in organizing traffic and pedestrian flow in the streets.
Surveillance cameras that can zoom, have night mode and can record for 30 days will be installed along the 300km northern coast road that runs from Alexandria to Marsa Matrouh, continued Lotfy.
He explained that the cameras, which will monitor the road for accidents or any attacks, will enable authorities to rapidly interfere in any situation.
Over the last month, 24 unidentified and decomposed bodies of illegal migrants washed up on the Egyptian shores, said Lotfy. The bodies were unrecognizable and were taken to a morgue in Alexandria.
Hundreds of unregistered migrants have been arrested at Egypt’s western Sallum border before illegally crossing into Libya.
Lotfy explained that under economic pressures people seek “the way to the unknown” to make their living, adding that those who want to cross the border “should stick to legal ways.”
There is tight coordination between the police and the armed forces to prevent any infiltration at the borders by implanting barbed wires, landmines and surveillance devices, Lotfy added.
