Portugal Raises Terrorist Threat Level From ‘Moderate’ To ‘Significant’

PORTUGAL has raised the terrorist threat level in the country from ‘moderate’ to ‘significant’.

As announced in a statement from the secretary general of the Internal Security System (SSI) on Friday, October 20, the measure is ‘preventive and cautious’ in nature, reported sicnoticias.pt.

The Security Information Service (SIS), as the entity responsible for threat assessment, also evaluated the situation. It suggested that there were conditions that justified: ‘the change in the degree of terrorist threat in Portugal from Moderate to Significant’.

This ‘significant’ classification level determines ‘that the Security Forces and Services in Portugal will continue to monitor, within the framework of the Anti-Terrorism Coordination Unit (UCAT), the evolution of the Security situation, adopting flexible and pragmatic measures of security, passive and active, that they deem necessary’, said the SSI.

They added that the Internal Security Service would disclose ‘information considered relevant on this matter’, whenever ‘it is considered useful and necessary’.

According to the Plan for Coordination, Control and Operational Command of Security Forces and Services (PCCCOFSS), there are five threat levels: 5 – Reduced; 4 – Moderate; 3 – Significant ; 2 – High; 1- Immediate; and also the ‘Z’ – Real Threat.

Terror-related incidents occurred in France and Belgium

The Portuguese authorities said they were monitoring events in the Middle East. Belgium and France have already suffered incidents as a repurcussion of the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7 after the Islamic State called on its followers to rise up in support.

In France, a man of Chechen nationality cut the throat of a high school teacher in the city of Arras last Friday 13, while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’.

An alleged Islamic State fighter who carried out an armed attack in Brussels on Monday 16 killed two people and wounded a taxi driver.

It was later revealed that the Tunisian national had been detained in Portugal in 2015. A judge ordered Abdeslam Lassoued  to present himself on a weekly basis to the authorities but he subsequently escaped.