More armed police to patrol London after terror attacks

Britain is well equipped to prevent terrorist attacks, but an attack similar to those seen recently in mainland Europe is a question of “when, not if”, London’s police chief said on Sunday.

The threat to the United Kingdom from global terrorism is now classed as severe, and although most of London’s 31,000 police officers will remain unarmed, 600 more officers with firearms will be put on patrol, taking the total of armed police to 2,800.

The UK’s terror threat has been ranked as “severe” (meaning an attack is highly likely) for two years now but Hogan-Howe added that the recent attacks had instilled a “sense of fear” in Britain.

“Our threat level has been at “severe” for two years – it remains there”.

Counter terrorism director Luiz Alberto Sallaberry said the threat had increased dramatically in recent months due to attacks across Europe.

“But even with this solid foundation to prevent attack, I have renewed our focus on what we will do when terrorists breach these defences”.

“We know it wants to go further by carrying out a nuclear attack in the heart of Europe”.

Hundreds of people are also visiting online services, participating in counter-terrorism awareness events or watching a film setting out the steps they should take if they are caught up in an attack. Our firearms officers are the ones who will run towards the danger. “I am afraid I can not do that entirely”, Hogan-Howe wrote.

The official threat level for global terrorism in the United Kingdom now stands at severe, which means that an attack is highly likely.

On July 14, a truck driver plowed through a Bastille Day crowd in the city of Nice and killed 84 people and wounded 200 others.

“We will not become like them, we will not hate, we will not be cowed and because of this they will never win”, he wrote.

He said: “We will get information, someone will see something unusual in their town centre where they work, they might be concerned about terrorist reconnaissance and they will report that to us”.

We want to deter the people who might attack us.

“We will see more armed officers on our streets, but there is no reason to be alarmed”, he said.

Sir Bernard said the country was nonetheless well prepared for dealing with the terrorist threat, pointing to plots which had been thwarted since the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in south east London in 2013.

In April it was announced police forces in England and Wales were to train an extra 1,500 firearms officers to help protect the public from terrorism.