Terrorist attacks foiled in Romania, intelligence officer says

Several terrorist attacks have been foiled in Romania, according to Razvan Avramescu, a counterterrorism officer of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI). Some of these attacks were also avoided because the Romanian authorities expelled and banned several people who were at various stages of radicalization, he added, reports local Digi24. The statement came after a terrorist attack at a concert in Manchester earlier this week. “The level of the terrorist alert is currently kept at blue-moderate. Blue-moderate is the second level on a scale of five. We believe this is exactly where we have to be, we cannot be green or any other level,” said Avramescu. According to him, the Romanians shouldn’t worry more, but they should remain alert, follow the news and the institutions’ press releases, and notify the authorities if they notice any problems. In 2015, SRI banned or expelled more than 340 people “with terrorist risk”. Moreover, it was keeping under observation at that time some 9,000 people, who were not allowed on Romanian territory. Two German citizens expelled from Romania due to terrorist links ISIS sympathizer expelled from Romania Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com