Festive family fun as Christmas Market season gets underway across Europe

By Paul McRingo Europe Correspondent

Europe’s Christmas markets have opened this year under the strictest security controls ever after a string recent of horror attacks.

From London’s Winter Wonderland to the cities of Germany, police and private security firms are on red alert – using concrete barriers and other layered defence measures to keep festive crowds safe.

It comes after the market in Magdeburg, central Germany, was hit with a bloody Christmas massacre last year when a migrant ploughed his car into crowds, killing six people and injuring more than 300.

It was the worst attack since Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz attack when a migrant drove a 32-tonne truck into crowds leaving 12 dead.

That was the worst attack since the previous 18 attacks when migrants massacred hundreds of civilians in various European countries by driving vehicles into crowds of Christmas shoppers.

Police are working on the assumption that there may be some kind of link between the migrant attackers but they haven’t managed to figure out yet what it is.

We asked Ireland’s Minister for Muslims Pádraig Scanlon if he thinks authorities here should erect concrete barriers at our Christmas markets.

“What a ridiculous question!” he retorted. “That’s one of the most racist, far-right and Islamophobic suggestions I’ve ever heard. No, we will not be erecting concrete barriers at our Christmas markets. Not until after the first attack anyway. Then we’ll probably have to.”