UK goes on highest level of terror alert
Bombing underscores how assailants can adjust to even the most sweeping security plans
Reuters Police and soldiers guarding Parliament and Prime Minister’s office yesterday as UK authorities rolled out the biggest homeland deployment of troops in decades to prevent an ‘imminent’ attack. The nation went on highest level of terror alert ‘critical’ — for the first time since June 2007 after the Manchester concert bombing carried out by Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old UK citizen born to Libyan parents.
Britain’s counterterrorism measures in stadiums, at train stations, airports and other sites are widely considered to be among some of the world’s most sophisticated.
Yet they were unable to prevent the most devastating attack on British soil since the London bombings in 2005, leading to questions about what more can be done.
Like Britain, other European countries have significantly stepped up security in recent years, introducing high-tech security hard- and software even for smaller sports or cultural events. But Monday’s attack underscored how attackers can adjust their deadly tactics to even the most sweeping security plans.
“The attack appears to have taken place in the walkway between the stadium and Victoria Station, suggesting that the perpetrator may have felt that the level of security in the stadium itself posed too high a risk to the success of his operation to carry it out inside,” said security analyst Daniel Falkiner.
Hard to prevent
Other attacks which have occurred in Europe over the last 12 months would also have been hard to prevent.
The March car-ramming attack in London was stopped within minutes, but the attacker had already killed several people and injured more than 50. Authorities also say the Christmas market attack in Berlin last December would have been almost impossible to prevent.
Still, some security experts defend recent efforts as more successful than generally acknowledged.
“The key is … to reduce threat as low as is reasonably practical,” said Sir David Omand, a former director of Britain’s intelligence agency GCHQ who designed parts of the country’s counterterrorism strategy.
One security measure which has been easy to implement and yet effective, Omand said, was to set up parking spaces further away from event venues to prevent vehicles from coming close to large crowds.