Montreal ups subway security monitoring

MONTREAL, May 8 (UPI) -- The Canadian city of Montreal is spending almost $1 million to install additional security cameras, infrared detection and intercom systems, officials said.

With funding from a federal anti-terror program, the city will spend $960,566 on the system that enables employees to add to the 1,200 surveillance cameras, the board of the Montreal Transit Corp., decided.

The rubber-wheeled underground network known as the Metro will be monitored by a computerized system that can differentiate between people and objects and alert staff if there is an intrusion on the tunnels, and operators will be able to communicate with them using two-way loudspeakers, The Gazette reported.

The system will also help with curious episodes in the past where frustrated commuters enter the tunnel to walk to the next station, commission spokeswoman Marianne Rouette told the newspaper.

In another instance last year, a group of teenagers was caught on surveillance cameras kicking a soccer ball around in a subway tunnel, she said.