What the hell?
Germany plans to tell its citizens to stockpile food and water in case of an attack or catastrophe for the first time since the end of the Cold War, according to reports.
The proposals, which Angela Merkel’s government is set to discuss at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, have not yet been made public.
But according to details leaked to the German press they include advice to citizens to stockpile enough food for ten days and clean drinking water for five days.
“The population should be urged by appropriate means to keep two litres of drinking water per person per day,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Sontagszeitung quoted a government paper as saying.
People will also be urged to keep supplies of medicines, warm blankets, coal, wood, candles, torches, batteries, matches, and reserves of cash in their homes.
The authorities are to boost stocks of smallpox vaccine and antibiotics in case of biological attack, and set up reserves of petrol and oil at 140 locations around the country to ensure a supply for 90 days.
Other provisions include setting up decontamination sites outside hospitals in case of nuclear, biological or chemical attack.
Germany is currently on high alert after two Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage by a mentally unstable teenager last month.
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