Tag Archives: Castle

Police erect new security barriers around Queen’s Windsor castle after London attack

An armed police officer guards an entrance to Windsor Castle, near to where security barriers have been placed. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

LONDON (Reuters) – Police erected new barriers around Queen Elizabeth’s Windsor Castle home on Tuesday to boost protection a week after a man killed four people in an attack around parliament in central London.

The additional measures followed a review of security at Windsor, the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world located about 20 miles (32 km) to the west of the British capital, police said.

The new barriers were put in place ahead of the regular “Changing the Guard” ceremony on Wednesday which sees soldiers in scarlet tunics and bearskin hats parade with an army band through the town of Windsor before heading into the castle.

The ceremony is hugely popular with tourists with more than 1.3 million people visiting the castle every year. Police said the new barriers in Windsor would be in addition to usual road closures.

“While there is no intelligence to indicate a specific threat to Windsor, recent events in Westminster clearly highlight the need for extra security measures to be introduced,” said Assistant Chief Constable Dave Hardcastle of Thames Valley Police.

“The force believes that it is proportionate and necessary to put in place extra security measures to further protect and support the public and the Guard Change.”

Last Wednesday, Khalid Masood, 52, killed three and injured about 50 people after driving a car into pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge before fatally stabbing a policeman in the grounds of parliament before he was shot dead.

Detectives said they believe he was acting alone.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison)

Brandenburg Gets First Synagogue Since 1938

A former church is being transformed into the first synagogue in the German state of Brandenburg since 1938.

The former “castle church” in Cottbus, Germany was handed from Christian leader Ulrike Menzel to the Jewish Association of the State of Brandenburg.  The facility will be renovated and then dedicated for use on January 27, 2015, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Menzel said during the transfer event that he was pleased to see the house of worship return to its intended use.  The church that had met in the building had disbanded and the facility was used for social events during the last few years.

The synagogue in Cottbus was destroyed on Kristallnacht when Germans nationwide took Jewish property and synagogues.  The site of that former synagogue in Cottbus is now the location of a department store.

The Jewish community formally reestablished in the city in 1998 and lists 350 members who are all former Soviet Union residents that fled for freedom to worship.