Notting Hill prepares for carnival trouble

ARMED police will be on the streets today as two million revellers attend the Notting Hill Carnival. Security will be stepped up amid heightened emotions following the Grenfell tragedy.

Emma Dent Coad, MP for Kensington, yesterday said the community needed the carnival “more than ever” this year. “It’s a time in the middle of the grieving to relax and honour the dead and get together and party briefly,” she told BBC Radio 4.

“I don’t think there’s any problem. It is a cultural thing to have a wake, and that’s how I see it.

“Our neighbourhood wouldn’t be the same without carnival. People plan for it all year. It would be completely inappropriate to move it or not to hold it at all.”

Posters have been placed around Grenfell Tower asking people not to take selfies at the scene of the fire. It comes as security in the area has been ramped up following a number of terror attacks in the capital, the latest just two days ago outside Buckingham Palace.

Police will be forming a ring of steel around the Lancaster West estate to protect it from passers-by and will be on the streets carrying facial recognition technology to identify known suspects.

A spokesperson for Scotland Yard added: “There will be armed police with guns on the streets and stop and search checks will be taking place.”

A daytime ban on cars has also been set up following the Barcelona, London Bridge and Westminster Bridge terror attacks.

So far officers have executed hundreds of search warrants and arrested more than 650 people, many now banned from attending the event, after up to 80 people were stabbed at last year’s event.

Residents have barricaded their homes and erected boards around their properties to prevent any destruction taking place this year.

‘There will be armed police with guns on the streets and stop and search checks will be taking place’