Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
UK TOURISTS TOLD: RUN FOR YOUR LIVES
Cops’ four-minute terror warning to tourists
TERROR cops are arming UK tourists with advice on how to survive a terror attack as millions prepare to jet off for summer breaks.
A four-minute video, with a Run, Hide, Tell message, is out today showing a hotel under fire – echoing the attack two years ago in Tunisia when 38 died.
Footage shows British holidaymakers relaxing before gunmen storm the building.
Bodies are scattered across the floor, in a chilling reminder of gunman Seifeddine Rezgui’s atrocity on a beach near Sousse.
Armed police take back the hotel while dealing with terrorists and holidaymakers are ushered to safety by officers.
Police stressed there is no specific intelligence that UK holidaymakers will be targeted.
Det Chief Supt Scott Wilson, national co-ordinator for the protect and prepare strategy, said: “As we saw in Tunisia, any westerner is likely to be a target anywhere in the world. That’s the sad reality. The chances of it happening are still very low.
Run, Hide, Tell was introduced by UK police in December 2015 and activated at London Bridge last month.
In a terror attack, people should run to a place of safety if there is a safe route, leaving belongings behind and insisting others go with them.
If there is nowhere to go, then they should hide by barricading themselves in and turn their phones to silent.
Then, only when it is safe, they should alert the authorities by calling the local emergency
COUNTER Terror police are doing lie detector tests on informants, amid fears about the quality of intelligence. Scotland Yard wants to weed out misinformation from sources who are often of questionable integrity.
However, the results of polygraphs are not currently accepted by
British courts. Britain’s number, which holidaymakers should find out in advance. For EU countries it is 112.
Mr Wilson added: “It is important everyone stays alert and knows what to do if the worst was to happen.
“We want people to think of this in the same way they do the safety film airlines show before take-off. They don’t expect
most senior counter-terrorism officer Mark Rowley, has overseen the scheme after four atrocities in the UK in four months that killed 36 people. Khuram Butt, who led the London Bridge attack, was once under 24-hour surveillance by police before a decision was taken to deploy finite resources elsewhere. anything bad to happen but it is a sensible safety precaution to show people what to do.”
More than 20,000 travel reps have been trained in safety measures including how to spot suspicious items and activity, as well as what to do in the event of a major terrorist incident.
Nikki White, director of travel agent association ABTA, said: “We know customers would look to those staff working in their hotels and resorts to take the lead and respond quickly.”
The terror precautions were prompted by attacks in France, Germany, Belgium and Turkey in the past two years and fears over other potential hot spots, Spain and north Africa.
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