Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Metropolitan Police commissioner, announced that there would be armed police officers stationed around famous landmarks. This is a measure to stop any potential terror attacks following the spate of incidents around Europe.
Recent attacks include the city of Nice, France, where a man ploughed into citizens with his truck killing 84 people.
The Met has said it will increase the number of armed officers by 600, leaving a total of 2,800.
Sir Bernard stated, “We have no intelligence that there will be an attack shortly but what we do know is what we have seen in Western Europe.
“We have seen attacks in Germany, in Belgium, in France and we would be foolish to ignore that, so it’s important that we get officers out there with firearms to respond.”
This follows the commissioner telling a newspaper that a terror attack was likely in the UK. He added that he wanted to increase firearms, provide training to handle armed terrorists and more visibility on streets for patrolling.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan states, “It’s really important that Londoners are reassured that the police service, that the security service, that all of us are doing our bit to keep Londoners in our city safe.
“That means Londoners will see more armed response officers, they will see more armed vehicles.
“The threat level hasn’t changed but we are learning the lessons from Europe, from Nice, from Paris, from Munich.”
Steve White, Chairman of the Police Federation, insisted that standards of the police force had to be maintained for the new measures. He argued that the best situation would be two years to get a further 1,500 officers in place.
