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Terrorist Attacks in Western Europe: A Counter-Terrorism Medicine Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2022

Derrick Tin Open the ORCID record for Derrick Tin [Opens in a new window] ,
Dennis G. Barten Open the ORCID record for Dennis G. Barten [Opens in a new window] ,
Harald De Cauwer Open the ORCID record for Harald De Cauwer [Opens in a new window] ,
Luc JM Mortelmans  and
Gregory R. Ciottone
Derrick Tin*
Affiliation:
Senior Fellow, BIDMC Disaster Medicine Fellowship, Department of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts USA
Dennis G. Barten
Affiliation:
Emergency Physician, Department of Emergency Medicine, VieCuri Medical Center, Venlo, the Netherlands
Harald De Cauwer
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Dimpna Regional Hospital, Geel, Belgium and Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
Luc JM Mortelmans
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, ZNA Camp Stuivenberg, Antwerp Belgium; REGEDIM, Free University Brussels, Belgium; Center for Research and Education on Emergency Care, Catholic University Louvain, Belgium
Gregory R. Ciottone
Affiliation:
Director, BIDMC Disaster Medicine Fellowship, Department of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MassachusettsUSA
*
Correspondence: Derrick Tin, MBBS, Senior Fellow, BIDMC Disaster Medicine Fellowship, Department of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts02215-5491USA, E-mail: dtin@bidmc.harvard.edu
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Abstract

Background:

The modern concept of terrorism has its roots in the “old continent” of Western Europe, more specifically in France, during the “Reign of Terror” period of the French Revolution. At the time, this form of state terror had a positive connotation: it was a legitimate means of defending the young state. While no single accepted definition of terrorism exists today, it is universally considered an attack on both state and society. The health care impacts of terrorist attacks often extend disproportionally beyond the casualty toll, but the potential for such events to induce mass casualties remains a concern to Disaster Medicine and Counter-Terrorism Medicine (CTM) specialists.

Method:

Data collection was performed using a retrospective database search through the Global Terrorism Database (GTD). The GTD was searched using the internal database search functions for all events which occurred in Western Europe from January 1, 1970 - December 31, 2019. Years 2020 and 2021 were not yet available at the time of the study. Primary weapon type, country where the incident occurred, and number of deaths and injured were collated. Results were exported into an Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft Corp.; Redmond, Washington USA) for analysis.

Results:

A total of 15,306 events were recorded in Western Europe out of a total of 201,183 events world-wide between the years 1970 and 2019 inclusive. This resulted in a total of 5,548 deaths and 17,187 injuries. Explosives were used as a primary weapon/attack modality in 8,103 attacks, followed by incendiary attacks in 3,050 events and firearm use in 2,955 events. The use of chemical, biological, radiation, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons was rare and only accounted for 47 events.

Conclusion:

From 1970 through 2019, 9.11% of all terrorist attacks occurred in Western Europe. Compared to global trends of attack methodologies in the same study period, the use of explosives as a primary attack modality in Western Europe was similar (52.94% in Western Europe versus 48.78% Global). Firearm use was comparatively low (19.31% versus 26.77%) and the use of CBRN as an attack modality was rare (0.30% versus 0.20%). The United Kingdom, Spain, and France accounted for over 65% of all terrorist attacks and over 75% of terrorism-related deaths in Western Europe.

Keywords

counter-terrorism medicinedisaster medicineterrorismWestern Europe
Type
Original Research
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 19 - 24
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine

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