PARIS, April 4. /TASS/. Leader of France's National Front political party and presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen believes the country’s security measures are insufficient to counter terrorism.
"The policy of fighting Islamic terrorism is apparently insufficient in France," Le Pen told the Public Senat TV channel in the wake of St. Petersburg’s subway blast, commenting on the situation in France, which has also suffered a string of attacks.
"There are serious flaws in keeping extremism at bay. There is the need to shut down radical Salafi mosques and expel foreigners from the country who are on the database for supporting terrorism, compiled by intelligence services. But all this is not being done," the politician maintained.
Le Pen also said the current state of emergency in France is inadequate.
France’s authorities introduced a state of emergency shortly after the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris and its suburb Saint-Denis that claimed 130 lives and wounded another 350. The state of emergency, originally imposed for three months, has been extended many times due to the high terrorist threat level.
On Monday, a blast rocked St. Petersburg’s metro leaving 14 people dead and more than 50 people injured, according to official reports.
An unidentified device went off in a subway train car between two stations, Tekhnologichesky Institut and Sennaya Ploshchad. The Russian Investigative Committee is treating the blast as a terrorist attack, but other theories are being looked into as well.
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