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NO Armed Police at Glasgow Airport During Attempted Terror Attack
No armed police at airport during attempted terror attack
STEPHEN MCGINTY
GLASGOW Airport had no armed police on duty when an attempted terrorist attack was launched last Saturday, Strathclyde Police admitted yesterday.
While both Aberdeen and Edinburgh airports had armed officers present following the attempted bombings in London, Glasgow, Scotland's busiest airport, was left unprotected.
When the two men in a Jeep Cherokee crashed into the Terminal 1 building at 3:15pm on 30 June, there was only one police sergeant on duty outside the terminal. Instead, members of the public helped apprehend two suspects as they allegedly tried to detonate a home-made car bomb.
It is understood that members of the Metropolitan Police's Anti-Terrorism squad were surprised that the individuals were arrested alive as, had the attack been launched at Heathrow Airport - which maintains a 24-hour armed police presence - they would most likely have been shot dead.
Last night, a spokeswoman for Strathclyde Police explained that a mobile armed response team was on duty but was not at the airport.
She said: "Strathclyde Police always has a firearms capability ready and [the officers] were on mobile patrol. We only station armed officers at the airport when the national threat level is at critical."
Yet the decision was criticised by Margaret Curran, Scottish Labour's justice spokeswoman, who said: "Had people died, we would be asking, 'Where were our armed police?' I would urge the chief constable to urgently review this policy."
Yesterday, Admiral Sir Alan West, the former navy chief who was recently named Gordon Brown's security minister, said the level of the threat Britain faced was unprecedented and could last for another 15 years. He also said a new approach to the problem was critical.
"This is not a quick thing. I believe it will take ten to 15 years. But I believe it can be done as long as we as a nation apply ourselves and it's done across the board."
He urged Britons who had knowledge or suspicion of terrorist activities to inform the authorities, adding: "Britishness does not normally involve snitching or talking about someone. I'm afraid, in this situation, anyone who's got any information should say something because the people we are talking about are trying to destroy our entire way of life.
"We'll have to be a little bit un-British, I think ... and say something and tell something."
Admiral West will report to the Prime Minister today on NHS overseas recruitment in the wake of the suspected car bomb plots in London and Glasgow.
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