This is certainly one of those things we hope you know but never need, but as with anywhere in the World, there remains a threat of Terrorism in Spain. The Spanish Ministry of Interior has the alert state set at level 4, which equates to “Alto” or “High”, they will have many solid reasons for this assessment.
In the last year or so you’ll all be aware that there have been a number of high profile attacks across Western Europe; France, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom have all fallen victim to “Lone Wolf” style attacks, Spain is also on the Terrorist radar and sadly we feel that Spain is likely to be the target of such an act in the near future.
The Costa del Sol is a target rich environment for a would be attacker, tourists of all nationalities in vast numbers, open areas, bars, restaurants beaches, people enjoying themselves, for most people on holiday, the guard is very much down.
Thankfully the Police and Intelligence services in Spain are doing a great job of monitoring extremists, they also have robust plans in place to counter hostile organisations as they act, what does worry us however is the lack of preparedness of tourist hot-spots. The Hotels, Bars and clubs of the Costa del Sol do little in the way of training and education of staff to spot unusual activity, much of this stems from the idea that “It’ll never be me” but there is also something to be said for the low value businesses place on their staff here, seeing them as transient cash cows working for a few euros over the season rather than valued employees which can safe-guard their businesses.
We would highly recommend business linked to tourist establishments to at the very least consider thinking about the following:
What responsibility do you have to your customers? Do you train for a fire drill but not a terrorist act?
Do you have a first-aider present at your location? How about medical supplies? Bandages, haemostatic dressings and tourniquets are all available to buy online.
Would you know what to do if you found a suspect package in your premises?
Do you have a good relationship with those around you? Simply talking about things you have seen with those based near you can be of huge benefit, local intelligence is vital in breaking the attack cycle.
We do so hope that our fears prove to be unfounded, but we also hope those with responsibilities to the public do start to do more to keep everyone safe, below we have a list of useful links to reading material designed to assist you in this process.
Spanish Ministry of Interior advice - El Plan de Prevención y Protección Antiterrorista
UK Government advice on the terror threat in Spain
Poster for the UK’s RUN, HIDE, TELL campaign
