UK - OLYMPICS 2012: Residents near London's Olympic Park hand in a petition against missiles being placed on an apartment block in east London.

Record ID: 331077

  • Title: UK - OLYMPICS 2012: Residents near London's Olympic Park hand in a petition against missiles being placed on an apartment block in east London.
  • Date: 28th June 2012
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (RECENT) (REUTERS) OLYMPIC PARK AND STADIUM OLYMPIC STADIUM
  • Embargoed: 13th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Defence / Military,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAD53ADEBKWWVH3TBC5SQDLGF4F
  • Story Text: "Stop Olympic Missiles" campaigners on Wednesday (June 27) handed in a petition to Britain's Ministry of Defence (MOD) to coincide with the one month countdown to the 2012 Games.
    The east London residents are angry that the military is considering placing missiles on the roof of an apartment block in the Bow area of the capital, which overlooks the Olympic Park.
    Rapier radar and missiles and High Velocity Missiles (HVM) will be stationed around London to protect the Olympic Park in the summer.
    The MOD stresses it is as a precaution, not because they plan to use such sophisticated equipment unless absolutely necessary.
    But east London residents are furious.
    "We think the idea of putting missiles on a housing estate is absolute madness and we oppose it. And also to say that one of the things that's most outrageous is there's been no consultation whatsoever about this idea from the Ministry of Defence so we've had to do our own consultation on the streets. And the message and the result we've got from that consultation is that this is a bad idea, local people don't want it and they need to rethink," said Chris Nineham an east London resident and spokesman for Stop the War Coalition.
    During the Games, air space will be prohibited in central London and restricted in Greater London.
    Typhoon jets will patrol the skies to deflect any planes which mistakenly stray into restricted space.
    The military is at pains to stress that the missiles operation would only be launched in case of extreme threat, such as a 9/11 type scenario.
    It is the first time such missiles have been deployed in London since the end of World War Two, shocking residents in the Bow Quarter housing development, sited in a converted red-brick Victorian match factory.
    "Far from feeling more secure, people in east London feel very very anxious about this and angry," said Nineham.
    The group handed in a thousand-strong petition to the MOD on Wednesday and are calling for a meeting with the military to discuss the plans.
    The governmnet has yet to decide whether it will go ahead with the plans to place missiles on the apartment building rooftop.
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