“Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, said: “The threat level here in London has not changed, but it does remain at severe and especially in light of recent deadly attacks in Europe it is important we are prepared should the unthinkable happen”.
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London’s police force is putting more armed officers on the streets “to protect against the threat of terrorism”.
Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said new armed police units will be working with increased neighbourhood patrol officers and communities to foil potential attacks.
Sir Bernard said: “We have no intelligence that there will be an attack shortly but what we do know is what we have seen in western Europe”.
Former prime minister, David Cameron, announced funding in April for an extra 1,000 firearms officers nationwide, including 600 in London.
“Or they will see somebody in their community – maybe a friend, a neighbour, or just an acquaintance, who they think is becoming more extreme”.
“That means Londoners will see more armed response officers, they will see more armed vehicles”.
But the main police union has warned that it could be two years before 1,500 extra firearms officers due to be trained by police forces throughout England and Wales are operational.
‘I want them to be friendly; I want them to approach the public and to be approachable to the public’.
United Kingdom counter-terrorism cops are going on permanent standby amid fears of a Europe-style assault on targets across Britain.
The additional armed officers will be visible to the public and will work across London, both on foot and in vehicles, he said.
He confirmed that Britain’s largest police force had hundreds of investigations ongoing, ranging from extremists right on the periphery through to small numbers of the highest risk operations.
“Picking up people as they gravitate towards extremism early on, so we can intervene with social services and other agencies in a preventative way, is really important”.
Sir Bernard said British gun control laws and the “world-beater” relationship between police, MI5 and MI6 makes the United Kingdom environment “immediately hostile” to terror attempts.
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The cooperation between police and members of the public is Britain’s “greatest advantage” in the fight against terrorism, a senior officer has said.
