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VIENNA, June 2 (Reuters) - Austrian air force jets flew over the capital Vienna on Monday as the country's Euro 2008 security operations, which include spot checks at all international borders, began in earnest.
Up to five million fans are expected to attend the finals co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland, leading to one of the biggest security operations faced by the two Alpine states.
From Monday, officials from more than 18 European nations will assist the Austrians with border checks, to be scaled up or down according to daily risk assessments. The measures will remain in force until the end of the June 7-29 tournament.
Police have said they will track any known hooligans or potential troublemakers from country to country, to prevent them entering Austria or Switzerland.
"According to our information there was no need to begin road border checks today, but this is subject to continual reassessment," said an Austrian police spokesman.
Austria, which has land borders with Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Switzerland, is a member of the European Union's (EU) Schengen area where people can usually pass across borders without showing passports.
Switzerland has 16,000 full-time police and Austria 27,000, although both countries will use their armed forces for back-up and foreign police officers.
A total of 1,100 foreign police officers will work in Austria during the finals, 850 from Germany, whose handling of the 2006 World Cup was widely deemed a success.
Others will work as spotters, mingling with crowds of fans and looking to swiftly isolate troublemakers.
Both the Swiss and Austrian air forces have said they will carry out reconnasissance flights over host cities, with Swiss jets due to make sorties later this week.
