An extra 600 armed police officers will patrol the streets of London to protect against terror attacks, the city’s mayor and police commissioner said Wednesday.
The move comes days after Bernard Hogan-Howe, the head of the Metropolitan Police, warned that an attack on Britain was a “case of when, not if.” On Wednesday he said there was no intelligence about an imminent attack but he wanted to reassure the public in the wake of terror attacks in 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,” the top cop said.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: “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.”
The last time London was hit by a terror attack was on July 7, 2005, when four extremists targeted three underground trains and one bus, killing 52 people.