France to keep border checks as long as 'terrorist threat' lasts

Brussels: France will maintain controls along all its borders with fellow EU countries for as long as the imminent threat of attacks remains, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Friday.

"France will maintain the border controls it established last Friday as long as the terrorist threat makes it necessary," Cazeneuve told a press conference after a crisis meeting with his EU counterparts following last week's deadly Paris attacks.

The Paris attacks in which 129 people died have raised troubling questions about border security in the Schengen zone, where citizens of 22 EU countries, plus non-EU Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein enjoy passport-free travel.

"There is a high level of terrorist threat and it's our duty to protect the French people," Cazeneuve said, defending France's decision to re-establish borders within the zone.