Terror and sport events
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Sporting events, particularly those with global appeal, are an obvious target for terrorists. Terrorists believe that such attacks will attract the attention of the world to their particular cause.
The darkest day in sporting history was at the1972 Olympic Games in Munich when terrorists took the Israeli national team hostage. In the end eleven athletes and coaches and one German police officer were slaughtered after a 16-hour standoff.
Other major terrorist attacks at sporting events took place in 2009 when the Sri Lankan Cricket team was attacked in Pakistan, a bombing in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park at the 1996 Olympics, the 2002 car bomb that donated adjacent to the Bernabeu Stadium in Barcelona, a terrorist bomb that severely damaged the Olympic stadium in Stockholm in 1997, and the murder of Colombian player Andrés Escobar, during the 1994 World Cup.
More recently and closer to home was the deadly terrorist attack during the 2010 African Cup of Nations. The Togolese National Football team was ambushed by terrorists as they travelled by bus from Congo-Brazzaville, where they had been training, to the neighboring Angolan province of Cabinda. Three people—the team’s assistant coach, their spokesman and their Angolan driver—were killed. Another nine members of Togo’s party were wounded including Togo’s reserve goalkeeper.
Terrorists’ attacks are not the only security and safety challenges that the organizers of such mega events sometimes must face. The threats of violence and crime as well as crowd control activities are also issues to be tackled.
Crowd control and related issues have long been a topic of concern for sport facility managers as crowd related tragedies have plagued the industry over the years. For example, at England’s Hillsborough Stadium disaster, when a human crush occurred on April 15th 1989 during an FA Cup semi-final, 96 people die and 766 were injured. At the The Heysel Stadium disaster in Brussels which occurred on the 29th of May 1985, escaping fans were pressed against a wall as a result of rioting before the start of the 1985 European Cup. Thirty-nine fans died then and 600 were injured. At Abidjan, Ivory Coast during a 2009 World Cup qualifying match between the Ivory Coast and Malawi a stamped left 22 dead and 132 wounded. In Ghana, West Africa a stampede at a packed soccer match in 2001 between two of Ghana’s leading teams killed at least 100 people.
Other disastrous sporting events included the stampede in 2000 at Harare, Zimbabwe, when twelve people died at a World Cup qualifier between South Africa and Zimbabwe as well as the Ellis Park Stadium disaster of 2001, which was the worst sporting accident in South African history. A total of 43 people were crushed to death then by the stamped of a crowd.
In addition, organizers of sporting events must also face the threat of hooliganism, the unruly and destructive behavior—such as brawls, vandalism and intimidation—by club fans, sometimes alcohol induced. Soccer game hooliganism can range from shouts and small-scale fistfights and disturbances to huge riots where rival fans attack each other with deadly weapons.
In some cases, stadium brawls have caused fans to flee in panic; some being injured when fences or walls collapsed. In the most extreme cases, hooligans, police, and bystanders have been killed, and riot police have intervened with tear gas, armored vehicles and water cannons. Not limited to soccer alone, hooliganism and violence is regularly reported at other sporting events like baseball, golf, cricket, Australian rules, Basketball, Football, Rugby and others.
Some of the most serious impacts of hosting sporting events arise as a result of an increase in crime and adverse behavior. Studies have shown that during sporting events there is a rise in both opportunistic crimes of theft from visitors and from their vehicles, crimes of sexual nature, common assault, robbery, traffic infringements, drunkenness and disorderly behavior as well as organized criminal activities targeting visitors.
Authorities today must take great lengths to make sure such sporting events are safe, that crowds remain in check, and that any threat of criminal activity is thwarted. Video surveillance is an invaluable tool in helping to ensure the safety of the fans, players, employees, and the facilities themselves. Equally important is the design and implementation of sound crowd control policies, limiting access to the sporting venues, crowd monitoring and gate control which can help prevent these crowd related accidents.
In Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, the main International Football Association competition in Africa was held in 2012, the Africa Cup of Nations Games. In order to tackle the challenges of securing this event, the organizers decided to integrate a complete security system. Magal S3 was chosen to provide a turnkey security solution. It signed a $35.5 Million Dollar contract to provide the fully integrated security system, covering multiple sites, for these games.
The African Cup project in Gabon consisted of 14 sporting venues: The Football Stadium in Libreville, The Football Stadium in Franceville, six training ground sites and six Olympic Villages.
Under this contract Magal was responsible for not only supplying products such as, Perimeter Security, Access Road protection, Access, Door and Gate Control, Explosive Device and Metals Detection, Monitoring, Face Recognition etc. Magal was also responsible for the complete integration under one Physical Security Information Management system of a unified and user friendly display of all alarms and events.
For this project, Magal’s fence mounted vibration system Barricade, Infra Red Beam Systems, PIR, and PTZ surveillance cameras were selected as the solution for perimeter security. The Barricade is a discrete vibration sensor which was installed either on wall mounted fences or on the stand alone. Any climbing attempt or cutting of the fence would generate an intrusion alarm, giving the security officer the exact location of the attempted intrusion. Infra Red Beam Systems, PIR, was used at sensitive sites, gates or those not protected by physical fences. The intrusion verification was accomplished by PTZ surveillance cameras installed around the perimeter of the sites. These cameras panned automatically to the site of the intrusion generated by the Barricade or PIR systems.
According to Magal S3 experience has taught them that it is not enough to protect just the actual sporting venues. The Access roads need protection as well. As such, Magal supplied video coverage to the main access roads within several kilometers of the two stadiums. As an extra precaution, it also supplied GPS locators for the buses that transported the players and their delegations. These locators also offered assistance in locating a vehicle that might have encountered an accident, malfunction, terrorist attack or high jacking.
Access control was achieved by an array of technologies to protect the entrances and off limit areas to the general public. Entrance to these areas was limited to valid card holders only. Any attempt by an unauthorized person to enter a secured area operated an alarm, presenting the exact location of the intrusion on the security monitors in the control room.
Some of the technologies included: Access Controllers and Readers that allowed entrance only to authorized personnel. Access control systems also functioned as “crowd counters” ensuring that attendance in specified areas remained below the maximum amount allowed; Door Alarms – Magnetic switches that sounded an alarm when a door was opened without proper authorization; Indoor Volumetric Detectors – Dual technology, Infra Red and Micro Wave, indoor sensors that detected intruders in indoor applications; Spiked Barriers which allowed traffic flow in one direction ; Boom Barriers – Physical barriers at gates that allowed for easy opening to allow for the entrance of authorized traffic; Bollards –Rising Bollards allowed traffic to pass while having the ability to completely stop a suspicious moving vehicle from entering the premises; Panic buttons – used by gate and door guards to alert the security officer of an intrusion event or of any other emergency; Portable road blocks – In the event of an emergency situation police or security personnel could deploy these portable road blocks and stop traffic in order to inspect or apprehend suspicious vehicles.
With the threat of terrorism and hooliganism in mind Magal also supplied a wide array of human inspection devices including explosive device and metal detectors, such as X-Ray Screening Equipment, and Walk Through Metal Detectors. Targeted objects, such as guns and knives, were consistently and accurately detected, while personal items such as keys, coins, belt buckles and eyeglasses passed through without causing an alarm.
In addition Magal provided an Explosives and Narcotics Trace Detector, a portable trace detector that made it possible to detect threats from explosives, chemical warfare agents, toxic industrial chemicals or narcotics. Hand held metal detectors were also used for personal body inspection while Mirrors were used to inspect the undercarriages of all entering vehicles. Blast Resistant Trash Cans were used to contain all suspicious items that were found.
Video monitoring played an essential part in any sporting events security program. Gates, doors, sensitive indoor areas, perimeters, access roads and crowd congregated areas, were all covered by video surveillance systems. Magal’s all-in- one video surveillance system, integrated the inputs from all the cameras and displayed them on monitors according to operators pre-defined rules. According to Magal the main feature of this system is its Intelligent Video Analysis (IVA) capabilities. These features helped to eliminate dependency on constant human monitoring, and the system operated assorted IVA algorithms on any cameras it was connected to. This ability helped transform regular cameras into intelligent security systems automatically alerting the control room when there was prohibited movement – Video Motion Detection, or alerting when a package or object was left unattended. This is called Non Motion Detection.
The threat of Hooliganism demanded the capability to identify persons or objects in a scene. The ability to detect acts of violence in a wide area and identify the people involved was paramount to the security program. To this end Magal supplied integrated Mega Pixel Camera technology that enabled network cameras to provide higher resolution of video images, including face identification. As such, these cameras provided a solution for post incident investigation because they provided detailed images of the entire field of view, without the requirement of an operator to control the camera.
Crowd related situations required the organizers to monitor the crowds and identify possible problems before they turned into catastrophic events. An aerial surveillance system such as Aerostats which is equipped with a super-light stabilized real time day and night high quality video payload for wide un obscured coverage, provided the solution and at the games it covered two stadiums for crowd control purposes.
The safety and security of the event was controlled from over 20 control rooms which monitored the events and alarms of all the 14 sites of these African Cup Games. The control rooms were based on Fortis, Magal’s Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) system which integrated all the site events, alarms and video. Magal’s physical security information management system (PSIM) optimized the management of the daily routine and site activity, abnormal, emergency and crisis situations. This enabled streamlined security operations, faster response to alarms, and improved organization of stored data. The positive outcome was enhanced command, control and decision-making during both routine operations and crisis situations.
According to Magal as important it was to provide comprehensive and durable solution for the African Cup Games, the local authorities gave much thought to the utilization of the security systems for use at the end of the African Cup Games. As such, the location and choice of the equipment was designed to answer future needs of Gabonese Safe City projects that will make use of the African Cup security systems. Thus, future Safe City projects will enjoy the use of all the video systems, control rooms, panic buttons, gates, and all other security equipment and systems.
Magal S3 is a leading international provider of security, safety and site management solutions and products. Over the past forty years, Magal S3 has designed and installed thousands of customized installations for satisfied customers in over eighty countries around the world, including those situated in the most threatening environments. Magal S3 has leveraged its experience in the defense industry in Israel and abroad to develop a unique set of cutting-edge security and safety products.
