Attack on City ‘inevitable’
The police chief responsible for the City of London has said a terrorist attack on the area is an inevitable reality.
Commissioner James Hart told the Financial Times police had thwarted “hostile reconnaissance” of the square mile several times since September 11th.
“Every successful terrorist group pre-surveys its target. There’s no doubt that we’ve been subject to that surveillance and that sort of thing has been successfully disrupted,” he said, adding that no arrests had been made.
Mr Hart said prominent buildings and businesses had been targeted, as had “iconic” sites with the intention of causing “mass murder and maximum disruption”.
Comparing attacks by the terrorists to those of the Irish Republican Army’s on the City over the past three decades, he said another attack was more a question of “when rather than if”.
Metropolitan police chief Sir Ian Blair has warned of “further strikes” by fugitive terrorists.
