UK/FILE: Military and police prepare to stage eight-days of security drills ahead of the Olympics, but there's criticism of the plan to put missiles on buildings in residential areas

Record ID: 330611

  • Title: UK/FILE: Military and police prepare to stage eight-days of security drills ahead of the Olympics, but there's criticism of the plan to put missiles on buildings in residential areas
  • Date: 1st May 2012
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (FILE - JANUARY 19, 2012) (REUTERS) POLICE SPEEDBOAT
  • Embargoed: 16th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Crime,Conflict,Defence / Military,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA6ZAGDP0OFBL15CG5EL4OWB8QS
  • Story Text: British military chiefs defended plans on Monday (April 30) to put missile batteries on top of apartment blocks to help protect London from a 9/11-style attack during this summer's Olympic Games, after appalled residents said it could make them a target.
    With 88 days to go before the Games start, soldiers will start testing missile defences this week (May 2) at six sites around the Olympic park as part of a training exercise in the run-up to Britain's biggest peacetime security operation.
    People living in one of the buildings earmarked for one of the missile batteries said they feared terrorists might attack their block and they were scared of the effects of shooting down a plane over a built-up area.
    However, military planners said they had to beef up security to cope with anything on the scale of the Sept. 11, 2001 strikes or a smaller, "low and slow" strike by a single light aircraft.
    Residents living near one of the planned missile batteries complained they had not been consulted and questioned the wisdom of siting them so close to homes.
    "Just to announce this is happening, without taking them through all of the issues, or saying 'we'd like to invite you to a meeting to discuss this so that we can give you a briefing on what's taking place'. Not just to drop a leaflet through doors and say 'By the way, we're putting a rocket on the roof of your flats.' It's just not the way forward," said opposition (Labour) Sports Minister Clive Efford.
    The Ministry of Defence said a final decision on whether to install missiles during the Games would be taken by Prime Minister David Cameron's government after the end of the Olympic security exercise, which runs until May 10.
    As one of the biggest supporters of the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, Britain has long been regarded as a prime target for terrorists. Suicide bombers killed 52 people in co-ordinated attacks in London on the day after the city was awarded the Games in July 2005.
    Britain currently rates the threat of a terrorist attack as "substantial", the third highest level, which means a strike is seen as a strong possibility.
    In January this year the military carried out joint exercises on the River Thames to plan for Olympics security operations.
    During this month's exercise, fighter jets will move to an airbase in northwest London and HMS Ocean, a helicopter-carrying ship will be berthed at Greenwich, close to some of the Olympic venues and the Canary Wharf financial district.
    "A major part of everything that we are doing is to give reassurance that not only people at home, but people abroad, that when they come to see the Games that they will be safe and they will be secure. Part and parcel of the exercise also ensures that all the main people will be working together, know how they are going to be operate together so there are no surprises in Games time," said Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, who is in charge of Olympics security.
    Around 13,500 soldiers will help the police during the Games, more than the 9,500 UK troops serving in Afghanistan.
    London's police force said it was preparing for terrorist attacks, organised protests and lone demonstrations, similar to the one which disrupted Britain's annual university boat race.
    "The top end terrorism attacks, potentially an attack on a venue from the air or potentially armed individuals on boats in the Thames driving very very fast is the sort of thing we would use the military to assist us with," said Allison.
    Some 12,500 police will be on Olympics duty each day across the country. Most will not carry a gun, in line with the long tradition of the British police.
    Police leave and training courses have been cut during the Games, which run from July 27 to Aug. 12, to ensure that there are enough officers to cope with non-Olympic threats. Last summer, rioting erupted in several English cities after police shot dead a man in London.
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