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Metal Detectors to Be Installed in Moscow Metro in 2014

A man passes through turnstiles on the Moscow metro. Vladimir Filonov

The Moscow metro will feature zones for security personnel to check passengers' belongings near entrances by the end of the year.

Metal detectors will also be installed before the entry turnstiles at all stations throughout the course of 2014, Rossiskaya Gazeta reported Wednesday, citing the Moscow metro press service.

Luggage scanning devices will also be installed, though only selected passengers will be required to use them. Those who refuse inspection will be denied access to the metro.

Interfax reported Thursday that the Moscow metro press service said the inspection zones were already operational at the Circle Line's Dobrininskaya station and that an "intelligent video surveillance system" would be working in all stations before the end of the year.

Moscow metro head Ivan Besedin had previously given an interview to Itar-Tass in which he said that measures were meant to conform to current laws on transportation safety and added that only passengers with a "large collection of metal items" would be stopped by security and searched.

The Moscow metro has been targeted by terrorists and saw heightened security in the run up to the Sochi Olympics. In 2010 suicide bombings carried out by militants from the North Caucasus killed 40 people and wounded more than 100 at the Park Kultury and Lubyanka stations.

State news agency Rossiskaya Gazeta also reported that the new generation of metro cars, scheduled to hit the rails in 2016, would include video surveillance systems.

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