The availability of official shelter spaces in Riga in the event of a drone threat is significantly worse than previously reported, according to statements made by the leadership of the Riga City Council’s Security, Order and Corruption Prevention Committee during a press conference on Friday.
In April of last year, then-head of the Civil Protection and Operational Information Administration Gints Reinsons informed the committee that shelters in the capital could provide refuge for slightly more than 200,000 residents.
However, at Friday’s press conference, committee chairman Ģirts Lapiņš acknowledged that the number of residents who could actually take shelter in official facilities is much smaller.
The Riga municipality is currently implementing a project to establish 146 shelters. The first shelters are expected to be completed in August or September. Altogether, these shelters will be able to accommodate approximately 52,000 people.
The politician promised to “do everything possible” to increase the number of available shelter spaces.
Given that most of these shelters are being installed in educational institutions, residents must understand that once the school year begins, schools and kindergartens will prioritize sheltering children and educational staff, municipal representatives emphasized.
Lapiņš could only urge residents to familiarize themselves with the developed emergency response algorithms and consider where they themselves could seek shelter in the event of a threat.
At the same time, he stressed that Riga currently does not face such threats, but given recent events in Latgale and elsewhere in the Baltic states, preparations for such a possibility are necessary.
As previously reported, municipalities along Latvia’s eastern border received warnings about possible airspace threats for three consecutive days this week. An actual drone entered Latvian airspace in only one of those cases, although it has still not been found.
Meanwhile, in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, authorities on Wednesday warned residents about possible drone threats and urged them to seek shelter, despite the limited availability of shelters there as well.
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