Safety check

Ski festival at Bergisel: “More checks expected”

More than 22,000 visitors crowded into the Bergisel Arena.

(Bild: Meinert Claus)

Endless columns made a pilgrimage to the Bergisel on Saturday. The "Tiroler Krone" mingled with the visitors and checked security. A group of young people with concert experience did not hold back their opinion. 

A sophisticated security concept for the Bergisel, which is adapted to the current threat situation every year, is designed to prevent tragedies like the one in 1999. Back then, seven young people died in a stampede.

"Of course, that still hovers in the back of our minds," said Martin Franke, who manages the local security service together with Kerstin Schäffer. The Innsbruck-based company Modus 106 Service Group (formerly GFS) had 125 security guards on duty yesterday. "Checks have always been very thorough," emphasized Franke, "the difference is that people are now more aware of security issues. This can be seen, for example, in the body checks".

Body checks at the five entrances.

(Bild: Birbaumer Christof)

Ensuring fast entry and exit
The Bergiselarena has five entrances and exits, and there are four gates in each area "so that there are no bottlenecks", explained the security experts. The visitors took the checks in their stride: "We were checked twice, but we would have expected more checks when we were searched, but in the end it's no different to a concert," said a group from Vorarlberg. The security staff did carry out body checks and inspect bags, but they didn't use portable scanners like at the airport. "Too cold" was one unofficial reason given. The aim was to make the inflow and outflow more fluid, "to avoid jostling and panic", Franke summarizes.

Sophia, Luisa and Maximilian (from left) felt safe despite the crowds.

(Bild: Birbaumer Christof)

Crowds at the sausage stand and VIP area
The stadium filled up rather slowly until midday, but the closer the start time approached, the more people streamed onto the Bergisel in columns. Anyone wanting to get hold of a sausage and a beer needed a lot of patience. The VIP sector became increasingly crowded: people queued for two hours. Finally, the police opened up the neighboring sector: "A good decision by the incident commander. It's all incredibly cramped," said one visitor to the "Krone".

The Red Cross, which was on site with 42 emergency personnel, had taken up position not far from the exits; falls and cold were the reasons for the operation. "We feel safe here," said Sophia, Luisa and Maximilian from Axams.

Wolfgang Ostheimer, deputy city police commander in Innsbruck, was the incident commander at the Bergisel ski jump.

(Bild: Neuner Philipp)

Videoüberwachung verstärkt

Die Polizei hatte alles im Blick

In the "Krone" interview, Bergisel incident commander Wolfgang Ostheimer talks about the changes resulting from the new situation after Magdeburg: 

"Krone": Mr. Ostheimer, has the operational concept been changed following the attack in Magdeburg on 20 December?
Ostheimer: We have strengthened a few measures, but this is not related to the event I mentioned, but to the fact that we reassess every event every year.

We feel safe here.

Sophia, Luisa und Maxilimilian

What measures are different in relation to the Bergisel than a year ago?we now have two official regulations that are very helpful to us from an operational point of view. One is a new video surveillance area, which means we can film. Another new feature is a search warrant, which means that we can also carry out checks and not just the stewarding service, which ultimately only enforces domiciliary rights. We check everything that is required by the security police. We don't do that at every event. In the case of video surveillance, this is standardized in the Security Police Act. We can keep the recordings for 48 hours.

Is this the first video surveillance on this scale at Bergisel?
To this extent, yes. Last year, precautions were also taken, but it wasn't terrorism-related, it was the actionism of the climate stickers who were banned from the site.

But there is no heightened terror alert level now?
No, there isn't. There is no threat level that is higher than last year.

How many police officers are on duty?
We do not provide any information on this. However, there are uniformed, civilian and special forces deployed to defend against drones.