Sombre images of France’s memorial service for the 130 killed in the Paris terrorist attacks flash off the TV screen in a St Julian’s café, juxtaposed with news on Brussels’ maximum security lockdown on a parallel screen.

As Belgian police continued with their hunt for the lone surviving Paris attacker and news of foiled attacks continue to dominate the headlines, the question arises as to whether this has become the new reality.

Charles Cassar

Charles Cassar, who has worked in security for many years, believes societies have to learn to live with terror but should not live in terror as this would be presenting victory to terrorists on a silver platter.

“It is important for the public to always be aware and on the lookout for anything unusual, but we should not live in fear and let this impinge on our freedoms; my advice is carry on with life,” he said.

Mr Cassar – who worked with the notorious SMU, which later became the force’s Special Assignment Group, and is now security chief at Portomaso – is also against permanently suspending Schengen.

However, he believes the government’s decision to reintroduce border controls until the end of December was a good idea as terrorists could be abusing of Europe’s passport-free zone; Schengen is the largest free travel area in the world.

I’m convinced nothing will happen, but that could just be my wishful thinking

“Brussels acted correctly to lockdown immediately after the Paris attacks… It’s an inconvenience and yes, it does play into the hands of the terrorists who achieved one of their goals to spark panic. But it’s better that way to avoid a tragedy if they had information of an imminent threat,” he said. As France focused its efforts on eradicating Isis in Syria, several international security officials were speaking of eradicating the terrorist group “within weeks”. But how possible was this? Was it possible to fully eliminate the threat? And even if this were possible, wouldn’t another terror group sprout up?

“I don’t think it’s possible to eradicate Isis any time soon, but what can be done is reduce the threat by squeezing their finances and targeting their well-organised army,” Mr Cassar said.

Isis – also known as Isil, the so called Islamic State and, more recently Daesh, an acronym used by their enemies to offend this extremist group, has been on everyone’s lips in recent days. Just four days ago, Malta’s flag was included on Isis’s “coalition of devils”, along with 60 other countries, and earlier in the week the US issued a warning urging its citizens to exercise caution “because it believes terrorists may be in the country [Malta] seeking passage to mainland Europe or lying low to avoid detection”.

Did this worry Mr Cassar?

“While anybody can be a sleeper, I don’t believe Malta is a hub and it’s irresponsible to label the island as such. However, I am a bit concerned to see our flag included in Isis’ coalition,” he said.Mr Cassar did add, however, that he did not believe Malta was a target and if something did happen or there was a potential threat, he had faith in the country’s forces and authorities; through “obviously you can never be 100 per cent covered, nobody ever is”.

“I’m convinced nothing will happen, but that could simply be my wishful thinking and we shouldn’t ever let our guard down,” he urged.

“In Malta there’s a certain laissez faire attitude… but if people see something out of the ordinary then they should inform the police. They shouldn’t intervene themselves, nor become paranoid either, just be aware.”