Atrium Plaza boosts security after threat
The Atrium Plaza upgraded its security last Thursday following a U.S. Embassy warning that it had received information about threats against the building.
The embassy advised U.S. citizens to avoid the office and retail building, which is located at the intersection of Aleja Jana Pawla II and ulica Elektoralna in Warsaw, for five days. "The Atrium Plaza commercial center has been targeted by unspecified individuals for an act of violence during the next five-day period," said the U.S. Embassy in a statement. It quoted "credible information from Polish authorities" as the reason for the warning.
Atrium's landlord, Swedish firm Skanska Property, confirmed that Polish police had received phone calls concerning threats against the building. "What we received was unconfirmed information about an unspecified threat," said Per Lennart Johansson, Skanska's general manager. After discussions with police, Skanska said it would upgrade security and inform its tenants about the situation. "You can see that there are more (security) staff here," he said.
Despite the threat, Johansson said, the building was carrying on business as usual. "There is nothing to worry about, my wife was here yesterday," Johansson said. He added that tenants were also going about their business as usual.
T.G.I Friday's, an American restaurant located in the building, said that it hadn't heard about any threat, according to Artur Olech, operations director with American Bistro Poland, the restaurant's operator. Olech also said that he hadn't noticed any change in the number of lunchtime clients last Thursday.
Skanska's Johansson said this was the first time that the Atrium Plaza had been threatened, but that in a big city like Warsaw it was normal that there would be "criminals or crazy people" posing threats. He added that the U.S. Embassy's advice was not fully warranted.
"We don't see any basis for the message," he said. The police department said there was no reason to panic. "We're monitoring the situation and we don't see any danger," said Dariusz Janas, spokesman for the Warsaw Police Department.
