Thai Police Prepared For New Year Countdown Security

BANGKOK, December 30 (TNA) - Thailand's National Police Chief Police General Preawpan Damapong said on Friday that he has instructed all police units to be fully prepared for ensuring public safety and facilitating traffic during New Year countdown events across the country. Police General Preawpan told reporters that he believes the New Year countdown at the CentralWorld shopping centre, the largest countdown venue in Bangkok, will be free from any untoward incident, as a force of over 2,000 police officers will be deployed there to provide security services and to ensure public safety. According to the national police chief, more than 1,500 close-circuit television cameras (CCTV) and bomb detection devices have been installed at the CentralWorld shopping complex, where police's checkpoints will also be set up. The national police chief acknowledged he has been informed by intelligence units that no clues of unrest, threatened by any group, have been detected. Meanwhile, Woot Sittisurat, Deputy Governor of Thailand's northwestern Tak Province, announced that a New Year countdown event will be organised at the Bhumibol Dam in Tak for the first time this year, as part of relevant authorities' attempts to assure people that the dam is safe and to dismiss a widely-circulated prediction recently over the major dam's crumbling down on January 1, 2012. (TNA)