US tightens security for Rose Parade on New Year's Day

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 31, 2003

US tightens security for Rose Parade on New Year's Day

US local authorities have tightened security for the coming New Year Day's Rose Parade, despite the fact that there is no clear evidence that the parade is a terrorist target, police said Tuesday.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

US local authorities have tightened security for the coming New Year Day's Rose Parade, despite the fact that there is no clear evidence that the parade is a terrorist target, police said Tuesday.

"I want to emphasize that there have been no specific threats against the city of Pasadena, the Tournament of Roses Parade or the Rose Bowl Game," said Bernard Melekian, police chief of Pasadena, a western US town in Los Angeles County, California.

The Tournament of Roses Parade, one to the two biggest New Year celebrating events in the United States, is a 115-year tradition for the city of Pasadena, featuring floats decorated with fresh roses.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, whose department will sendabout 100 deputies to the city, stressed the importance of security at the Rose Parade, noting that Los Angeles is one of "the coveted targets" of terrorists in the United States.

More than 1,000 local and federal law enforcement officers, many in plain clothes, will be deployed on Pasadena streets and electronic sensors will sniff the air for biological agents while video surveillance cameras keep watch over the crowds, according to local media reports.

In addition to Thursday's Rose Parade, other potential targets in the Los Angeles area include Universal Studios, Disneyland and the Los Angeles International Airport, Baca said.

The US Department of Homeland Security raised the threat level to orange on Dec. 21, signifying a high risk of a terrorist attack.

Questions?Comments? Click here

US slow to upgrade airport security systems: report

Times Square readied for New Year's Eve gala

World's second large desert thrown on green scarf ( 3 Messages)

China offers emergency humanitarian aid to Iran ( 5 Messages)

Will China's rise trigger Sino-US confrontation? ( 24 Messages)

"Tree direct links" provide more security guarantee for Taiwan people ( 4 Messages)

Gas field blowout kills 191in SW China, 290-odd hospitalized ( 22 Messages)