With fears of more terror attacks still gripping Britain,
SAS troops have taken to our streets in a bid to prevent any further
bloodshed.
Special forces soldiers armed with Heckler
and Koch MP7 are disguised as beggars and road sweepers at key at key
positions in cities and poised to strike at a moment’s notice.
It is hoped the troops can stop any repeat of the London Bridge or Manchester attacks or at least try to restrict casualties.
One source said: “The view is there are so many homeless people out there undercover operators will remain safe and anonymous.
“Anyone
trying to pick on them would be extremely foolish and the public should
feel reassured that a lot is being done to minimise the effect of
another attack.”
A military source added: “The armed
units have been deployed for some time now and it is unlikely the
operation will be brought to a halt.
“The threat level is still assessed by the Joint Terrorism Analysis
Centre as severe and that means an attack is highly likely so we must be
ready.
Special forces soldiers armed with Heckler and Koch MP7 are disguised as tramps and road sweepers
"These soldiers provide a very good layer of immediate
response at least to minimise casualties or stop injuries or deaths if
they react quickly.
"The operation is police-led but the
director of special forces is kept in touch with developments and is
in touch with his men at all times.”
SAS soldiers from the regiment’s G-Squadron and Counter Revolutionary Warfare Wing have been drafted in for the operation.
Soldiers from the G-Squadron and Counter Revolutionary Warfare Wing have been drafted in They were deployed alongside police from the
Counter Terrorist Firearms Officer unit when the terror threat level
went to “critical” after the Manchester attack when Salman Adebi killed
23 people, including seven children, at an Ariana Grande gig in
Manchester.
The troops and police are stationed around transport hubs and in shopping centres.
They
are fed by comrades dressed as members of the public who on rotation
pass by and drop take-aways and drinks for them to keep up the
pretence.
As well as carrying the MP7 rifle the troopers and police
officers also have an emergency medical kit to help victims of an
attack.
The police-led drive was inspired by previous
armed operations such as the Millennium Dome robbery in East London
which was smashed by officers who used undercover observation posts.
SAS troops in the past have helped in large-scale surveillance operations, joining forces with MI5 and the police.
But in this latest role they are there specifically to open fire on terrorists targeting civilians.
Ordinary
police units are either told to avoid areas where there are undercover
teams or they steer clear of them if they are nearby.
An MoD spokesman said: “We do not comment on matters relating to special forces.”
At least seven people have been
killed and 48 injured in central London after attackers drove a van
into pedestrians before stabbing others nearby.
The vehicle was driven at high speed into people on
London Bridge just after 10pm on Saturday and then continued to Borough
Market.
There, the attackers, reportedly armed with foot-long knives, jumped
out of the white van and stabbed people, including a British Transport
Police officer who has serious but not life-threatening injuries to his
face, head and leg.
Within eight minutes, armed police confronted three male attackers, shooting them dead in Borough Market.
Metropolitan
Police commissioner Cressida Dick condemned the atrocity as "appalling"
and "ghastly". She said police believe all attackers had been
"neutralised".
Referring to the speed with which officers were
able to respond to the incident - in just eight minutes - she said: "We
were already at a very high level of alertness.
"Severe means that
an attack is highly likely and the threat level was at severe. We were
prepared potentially for an incident as we have been for some
considerable time."
Appealing to Londoners and visitors "to remain
calm, be very vigilant", she also warned: "The last thing we need is
people overreacting or take out there frustrations on other people in
other communities".
Asking people to contact police if they see
anything out of the ordinary, even if insignificant, she said where
possible "people should carry on with their normal lives".
The
injured were taken to five hospitals across London, according to the
city's ambulance service. More were treated at the scene for less
serious injuries.
France's President Macron said two of the victims were French citizens, with one in a serious condition.
Image:A man on the ground with canisters attached to his chest. Pic: Gabriele Sciotto
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The
Premier Bankside hotel was evacuated and three hospitals - Guy's, St
Thomas' and Evelina London Children's - went into lockdown "to keep
patients, relatives and staff safe".
Police also responded to an
incident in Vauxhall at 11.45pm but later said this was a stabbing
unrelated to the two terrorist incidents.
Image:People were told by police to leave the area with their hands up
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Prime
Minister Theresa May has returned to Downing Street for security
briefings and will chair a meeting of the Government's emergency
response committee - Cobra - later today.
She said the "terrible incident" was being treated as a "potential act of terrorism".
National
campaigning in the General Election has been suspended by the
Conservatives and Labour in the wake of the attack, with the PM likely
to come under pressure to cancel or postpone Thursday's poll.
But
London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, who described the atrocity as a "barbaric
act", has insisted he is not in favour of delaying the election.
He said: "One of the things we can do to show we are not cowed is to vote in the General Election on Thursday."
Image:Police attend to an incident on London Bridge
Spectator journalist Will Heaven was at London Bridge shortly after
the incident and wrote on Twitter that he had seen casualties - one on
the pavement and one on the edge of the road.
He told Sky News:
"It was about 10.15pm. I was in the back of an Uber cab driving over
London Bridge...there was somebody down on the pavement with a small
crowd around them clearly very concerned.
"It looked like someone
had collapsed. We drove a bit further and noticed there was another
person on the right hand side of the bridge who was also not on the
pavement but in the road itself.
Was it a mistake to lower the UK terror threat?
"The
penny dropped something quite serious was happening. Suddenly the
traffic came to standstill. The driver said something bad is happening
here.
"We could hear sirens coming and the suddenly ahead of us we noticed another casualty in the road."
He
added that "it did not look like an accident", adding it was clear that
police "thought they were responding to something far more serious than
a road traffic accident".
A witness who gave his name as Jamie was in a restaurant near London
Bridge. He said: "We heard a fight and everyone got up and everyone
rushed out of the restaurant and we heard a massive, massive bang.
"Then we hid under the table and people came into the restaurant and knocked a bunch of stuff over, like the till.
"And
then we ran into the restaurant into the kitchen, where there was a
bunch of other people and a guy had been stabbed and he was cut and he
was bleeding quite a lot."
Image:Emergency services attend to an incident near London Bridge in London
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A
female companion said: "We were in the restaurant and we just saw three
guys come into the restaurant, stabbed someone in the face and someone
in the stomach.
"One of them had a big knife, then he came in and
walked around the restaurant, I guess they just kind of stabbed anyone
that they saw and knocked things on the ground and then we just hid."
Police
asked people to avoid the areas affected, with London Bridge being
closed in both directions.
London Bridge, Bank, Vauxhall and Borough
stations were closed, although Bank and Vauxhall have since reopened.
The attacks come less than two weeks after a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a concert in Manchester.
Ariana Grande, who had been performing that night, tweeted: "Praying for London".
::
Anyone concerned about friends or relatives who may have been caught up
in the attacks can call the police casualty bureau on 0800 096 1233 or
020 7158 0197.
