DR Verificerer ( https://www.dr.dk/verificerer )
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*Previously confidential emails reveal:* Copenhagen metro cannot be used as a bomb shelter today
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If the Copenhagen metro is to be used as a shelter in the future, investments will be needed, according to previously confidential emails.
Metroselskabet confirms to DR that the underground structure cannot be used as a shelter today. (Photo: © Emil Nicolai Helms/Ritzau Scanpix, Camilla Stage) 50 min. ago
Over 40,000 people sought refuge in Kyiv’s metro during Russia’s massive attack this summer.
More than a year ago, Metroselskabet began investigating whether the Copenhagen metro could also be used as a shelter, as is done in Kyiv.
At the time, it was said that the investigation would be completed within a few months, but the results of the work have yet to see the light of day.
Now, previously confidential emails between the City of Copenhagen and Metroselskabet, which DR has obtained through a freedom of information request, reveal that the metro cannot currently be used as a shelter.
Read also: Can the metro function as a shelter? This is now being investigated ( https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/kan-metroen-fungere-som-beskyttelsesrum-det-undersoeges-nu )
At least not without extensive modifications.
This is confirmed by Lene Sandberg, associate professor at the University College Copenhagen. She researches societal safety and has read the confidential emails:
- Metroselskabet writes that if no renovations are made, it cannot be used as a shelter today.
Metroselskabet also confirms this to DR.
- We are working on preparing individual rooms for short-term protection of a limited number of passengers already in the metro. That is not the same as turning the stations into shelters, Metroselskabet writes in an email to DR.
Here you can read an excerpt from the freedom of information disclosure, where Metroselskabet responds to the City of Copenhagen.
DR has removed the sender’s name. (© City of Copenhagen, Finance Administration)
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Risk of glass shattering and no toilets
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Shelters are extra robust rooms that protect the population against air attacks. This can be read on the Danish Emergency Management Agency’s website.
Both former Emergency Minister Torsten Schack (V), Lise Bech from the Denmark Democrats, and Kasper Roug from the Social Democrats have proposed ( https://www.folketingstidende.dk/samling/20251/salen/M21/20251_M21_referat.pdf ) that it should be investigated ( https://www.folketingstidende.dk/samling/20251/salen/M21/20251_M21_referat.pdf ) whether the Copenhagen metro can be used as a shelter. The Conservative Mayor for Children and Youth in Copenhagen, Jakob Næsager, has also done so.
But if the underground stations in Copenhagen are to be used as shelters in the future, several shortcomings need to be addressed, according to the emails DR has obtained through the freedom of information request.
>
> If you have eyes in your head and look down through the skylights on the
> metro station, you can see that it is not safe.
>
These include toilet facilities, risk of shattering, and ventilation.
- The tunnel tubes cannot be used, and in the remaining rooms, renovations must be made, says Lene Sandberg.
On the ceiling of several stations, there are skylights that can shatter, and that is not acceptable if the stations are to function as shelters, Metroselskabet writes in the correspondence.
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A place to seek refuge
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It does not surprise Rasmus Dahlberg, associate professor in societal safety at Roskilde University, that the metro as it looks today cannot be used for shelter.
- If you have eyes in your head and look down through the skylights on the metro station, you can see that it is not safe, he says.
Rasmus Dahlberg explains that the metro was designed in peacetime, and a political decision is needed if it is to be used as a shelter in the future.
- Politicians generally need to decide what is required in terms of shelters and preparedness and figure out what level of protection Denmark should have, he says.
Even though large parts of the metro are not suitable as shelters today, Lene Sandberg points to a short-term solution.
- What I read in these emails is that there is a short-term possibility of using the bicycle basements.
Metroselskabet itself also points to the underground bicycle basements, which can potentially be "adapted for short-term protection."
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"Danes need to know where they can go during an attack"
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That the report, a year after the investigation in 2025, is still pending leads the emergency preparedness spokesperson for Venstre to criticize the Ministry for Societal Safety and Emergency Preparedness for withholding information.
- I actually don’t think the minister and the ministry have done their job well enough, says Peter Juel-Jensen, emergency preparedness spokesperson for Venstre.
In September, the MP submitted two committee questions about the investigation to the Minister for Societal Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
But the Venstre spokesperson does not believe the answer was sufficiently thorough. He is puzzled that the City of Copenhagen has more information than the ministry.
- We need to be able to provide this kind of information on an ongoing basis so Danes know where to go if we come under attack, says Peter Juel-Jensen.
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"The report is important"
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DR has sent a number of questions to the Minister for Societal Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Lisbeth Bech-Nielsen (SF).
After DR’s inquiry, she sent the report with the investigation results to the emergency preparedness spokespersons.
The ministry writes that she received the report from the Ministry of Transport on Wednesday, and therefore she could only share the information with the emergency preparedness spokespersons on Thursday, the ministry writes in an email to DR.
- The report is important because its results and conclusions are part of the overall work in the shelter area, and therefore it will become part of the basis for our priorities, writes Lisbeth Bech-Nielsen.
In the freedom of information disclosure from the City of Copenhagen, it appears that the report was delivered to the Ministry of Transport shortly before Christmas last year.
The report is security-classified and contains confidential information, Metroselskabet states.
However, the company shares the report’s overall conclusions, which are consistent with the content of the previously confidential emails.
If you want to know where your nearest shelter is located, there is no official list.
The Danish Emergency Management Agency states on their website ( https://samsik.dk/beskyttelsesrum/faq-beskyttelsesrum/ ) that you should contact your municipality or the municipal rescue service.
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Warning: This article was translated by a Large Language Model, in case of doubt, you can always visit the original source.