Cologne, Germany - Cologne is throwing open its doors to the world next week for the first foreign trip by Pope Benedict XVI, even as it welds shut manhole covers in the streets, seals off its airspace and closes bridges.
Mindful of bombings in London, Egypt and Madrid, authorities are taking no chances with security for the German-born pontiff and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims expected for World Youth Day. Thousands of security officials will be on trains, trams and buses, along the rivers and in city squares.
One source of concern comes from organizers themselves: They are handing out 370,000 small backpacks emblazoned with the World Youth Day logo to those who register for the event.
The navy-and-baby-blue backpacks come stuffed with a rosary, a book of songs and prayer, Band-Aids and bottled water. Officials worry terrorists might pack them with explosives the way the London and Madrid bombers did.
"There have been no concrete threats," Interior Minister Otto Schily said Wednesday, but security is still tight.
Cologne police are being joined by officers from other forces around the country, along with police from Portugal, France and Italy. Some 30 canine units trained in sniffing for explosives will also be on hand, Cologne officials and organizers said. German soldiers are also being drafted to help.
The city has been running drills ahead of the event, which begins next Wednesday and runs to Aug. 21 and is expected to draw at least 800,000 participants, along with more than 6,000 journalists.
Officials won't say if pilgrims will be searched, but undercover police and others will be monitoring the crowds.
World Youth Day spokeswoman Barbara Marnach said organizers are mindful of the London bombings but have no plans to cancel the backpack giveaway.
"They will be handed out in the parishes and to those who have registered," she said.
Ingo Wolf, the interior minister of Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia state, said more than 12,000 police, firefighters and civil defense officers from around Germany will be on the job during the event. The figure does not include security forces coming from outside the country or the German troops assigned to protect it.
"In a free society there always has to be a balance between security and freedom," he said. "We want to be good hosts, but at the same time also guarantee the best possible security."
NATO will send AWACS planes to help patrol the skies over Cologne at the German government's request. The alliance has sent planes for similar use to other events, including the funeral of
Pope John Paul II and the Olympic Games in Athens last year.
The high-point of the gathering will be an open-air Mass on Aug. 21 led by the pope at the 640-acre Marienfeld, a former open-pit coal mine. As many as 1 million people are expected to attend.
The airspace over the field will be closed to all aircraft and security forces will be patrolling the grounds, the air and on the Rhine River, police said.
Bob Ayers, a security and intelligence expert and associate fellow of Chatham House, in London, said the pope himself would not be a likely target, given the level of security that surrounds him. But with so many people — and journalists — in attendance, World Youth Day would be a prime opportunity for terrorists to grab attention.
He cited the Madrid bombings, which came ahead of Spanish elections when scores of foreign media were there to cover it. In London, the July 7 bombings happened during the G-8 summit in Scotland, again, with scores of foreign media in Britain.
"It would, in effect, be an instant press conference if they were to do something," Ayers said, adding that any attack would likely target a hotel, restaurant or public transportation.
"If al-Qaida ... operated the way they did in Spain or in the UK, you could expect something to happen not involving the event, but around it."
During a drill last week, some 200 tourists visiting the massive Cologne Cathedral were told to evacuate. Twenty minutes later they were on the streets and the entire structure, from its high towers to crypts, was swept of people, part of the security planning that has been going on.
The pope, who assumed the papacy in April, is scheduled to visit the gothic cathedral, dedicated to Saints Peter and Mary, on Aug. 18.
But despite the security, organizers warned there are no guarantees of an incident-free event.
"We are never going to be able to insure 100 percent security at such a huge event, and to believe that is possible is quite simply illusionary," Hermann-Josef Johanns, managing director of the festival, told Deutsche Welle last week.