The European Union yesterday stepped up its readiness to deal with biological, chemical and nuclear attacks by creating a network of emergency experts and agreeing to share data on available vaccines and antidotes.
As fears continued to grow in the West of follow-up attacks to the September 11th air attacks on New York and Washington, civil protection units from across Europe decided to pool their expertise in case of biological, chemical and nuclear attacks.
Fears that biological threats could be used increased yesterday when an employee of a television news channel in New York was tested positive for skin anthrax. Three people in Florida recently contracted respiratory anthrax, one later died. None of the cases has been conclusively linked to terrorism.
The European government representatives, meeting in Knokke, Belgium, said that by October 31st they would set up a dedicated phone network to ensure 24-hour contacts were possible between national bodies.
They also promised to put in place a systematic information exchange for news on accidents or terror threats.
In December, the EU will organise a workshop to consider longer-term measures, the European Commission said in a statement.