Security at US embassy being beefed up: Sushil Kumar Shinde

NEW DELHI: Security at US embassy here and four of its consulates across India is being tightened following killing of a top American diplomat in Libya and a protest at its mission in neighbouring Egypt. "We have directed beef up of security at all US missions in the country," Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told reporters here on Wednesday.

Apart from its embassy in New Delhi, the United States has four consulates in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad. The five US diplomatic missions are considered 'high risk' category buildings and are being provided round-the-clock security, including monitoring of ingress and egress of every individual. The directive to beef up security has come in the wake of American ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other embassy staff being killed in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. They were killed when protesters, angry over a film deemed offensive to Islam, attacked the American consulate there on Tuesday night.