Confidential emails show Copenhagen metro cannot serve as a shelter

Copenhagen’s metro cannot currently be used as a shelter without extensive changes, confidential emails reveal. The emails, obtained by DR from Copenhagen Municipality, show that the Metro Company has identified several shortcomings.

More than 40,000 people sought shelter in Kyiv’s metro during a major Russian attack this summer. The Metro Company began examining more than a year ago whether Copenhagen’s metro could also be used as a shelter, but the findings had not been made public.

Lene Sandberg, a lecturer in societal security at Københavns Professionshøjskole, a higher education institution, says the emails make clear that the metro cannot serve as a shelter without renovation. The Metro Company confirmed to DR that it is preparing some rooms for the short-term protection of a limited number of passengers already inside the system, but said this was not the same as turning stations into shelters.

The emails identify problems including toilets, ventilation and the risk of glass shattering. Skylights in the ceilings of several stations could break into dangerous fragments, the Metro Company wrote. The tunnel tubes cannot be used, Sandberg said, and other rooms would need to be renovated.

Rasmus Dahlberg, a lecturer in societal security at Roskilde University, said the metro was designed in peacetime. Using it as a shelter would require a political decision about what level of protection and emergency preparedness the country should have.

Sandberg said the underground bicycle rooms could offer a short-term option. The Metro Company has also said they could potentially be adapted for brief protection.

Venstre emergency preparedness spokesperson Peter Juel-Jensen criticised the Ministry of Societal Security and Emergency Preparedness for not sharing enough information about the investigation. He said people need to know where to seek shelter in the event of an attack.

After DR contacted the ministry, Minister Lisbeth Bech-Nielsen of the Socialist People’s Party sent the report’s findings to emergency preparedness spokespersons. The ministry said she received the report from the Transport Ministry on Wednesday and shared it the following day. Bech-Nielsen said the report would inform the government’s work and priorities on civilian protection.