Terror on the Thames
Sightseeing boat hijacked . . . but don’t worry, it’s only a drill
WITH gun-toting officers boarding a tourist boat full of hostages, this was the scene on the Thames yesterday for a police anti-terror drill.
Hundreds of armed police took to the river in speedboats to test their response to a London terror attack.
Specialist officers stormed the hijacked cruise boat to rescue hostages from six mock terrorists, with river traffic brought to a standstill as the Metropolitan Police enacted a live-action, waterborne exercise for the first time.
And the sightseeing vessel then became the scene of a mock gun battle between officers and police volunteers posing as terrorists shortly after 11am close to the Docklands area.
Police boarded the moving vessel in a hail of ‘gunfire’ just over two hours after a simulated hijacking in which a group of officers posing as terrorists assumed command of the boat in a roleplay hostage scenario.
A dummy body was thrown overboard as volunteer hostages begged for rescue.
Afterwards, Scotland yard Commander BJ Harrington said: ‘I’d like to stress that this scenario wasn’t based on any specific intel- ligence, but it’s important to remember that the threat level for international terrorism in the UK remains at severe.
‘This kind of exercise demonstrates that should a terrible event ever happen for real, London is ready to respond in the most effi- cient and effective way possible. With the threat level as it is, we cannot afford to be complacent and the public should always be vigilant and ready to act if the worst were to happen. ‘ Of course, we have seen a number of incidents abroad in the past few years – Nice, Berlin – we have seen different methodologies developing, and, of course, the river runs right the way through London so why wouldn’t we prepare for that?’ The London Ambulance Service, London Fire Brigade and the RNLI were also involved. It comes after the Met’s most senior counter-terrorism officer, Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, revealed that security services have thwarted 13 potential attacks on the UK in less than four years.