IN Brazil to boost Olympics security

Brazil had already planned to deploy 85,000 police and soldiers as cover for the Olympics double the number used in 2012 London Games

Brasilia, July 16: Brazil said it will bolster security for next month’s Olympics in Rio following the truck attack in the French city of Nice.

Brazil’s interim president Michel Temer held an emergency meeting with his intelligence chief and members of his cabinet late Friday night to weigh the next steps after the Nice attack, which killed at least 84 people.

As he left the meeting, intelligence chief Sergio Etchegoyen said new security measures would include extra checkpoints, barricades and traffic restrictions.

Brazil had already planned to deploy 85,000 police and soldiers to provide security for the Olympics — running August 5 to 21 — double the number used in the 2012 London Games.

Etchegoyen said fears over security at the Rio Games had “gone up a notch” after the attack in Nice, where a Tunisianborn man drove a 19- tonne white truck into a huge crowd gathered to watch the annual Bastille Day fireworks display on Thursday, leaving a gruesome

trail of dead bodies in his wake.

“We’re trading a little comfort for a lot more security,” he told a press conference at the presidential offices.

Brazilian intelligence officials met with French counterparts for a briefing on the Nice attack, he said.

Defense Minister Raul Jungmann expressed “worries” over the Nice attack.

“This worry will translate to more checkpoints, security, staff and procedures being put in place,” he told reporters.