Security stepped up at Paris airports

Authorities plan to triple the number of surveillance cameras at Paris airports, France’s transport minister said today as he inspected security systems at the capital’s main international hub.

The number of cameras at Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, now at about 2,000, will reach 6,000 in the coming years, Dominique Perben said.

The minister also said the government had been thinking of ways to strengthen border controls since a suspect accused of trying to bomb a London underground train on July 21 eluded a dragnet in Britain and passed through France en route to Italy.

Osman Hussain, a British citizen also known as Hamdi Issac, was arrested on Friday in Rome.

“Obviously the fact that a man could leave Britain, cross France and turn up in Italy while evading all our control systems forces us to reflect on our border surveillance system,” said Perben, during a tour of Charles de Gaulle airport.