Armed police on standby to maintain order at Cop 26
HUNDREDS of armed officers are ready to flood the streets of Glasgow to help protect the Queen, the Pope and President Biden during the Cop26 summit, Police Scotland said yesterday.
The force has about 500 armed officers and, if necessary, a “significant” number of armed police from other forces will assist them.
The Queen, Pope Francis and Joe Biden are among the high-profile figures expected to attend.
Every member of the United Nations has been invited, so nearly 120 heads of state are expected to arrive in Glasgow in November, along with some 20,000 accredited delegates. Several thousand police officers will arrive each day in a phased approach, with about 10,000 involved in total.
Ch Supt Louise Skelton, the officer in charge of armed policing for Police Scotland, said there was “no specific threat” to the summit from terrorists.
But she said the force would continue to monitor the threat level as the event approaches. Armed response vehicles and officers with Glock handguns and semi-automatic G36 assault rifles are ready to deal with any attack.
In a training event at the Scottish Police College at Jackton, East Kilbride, officers demonstrated armed response vehicles stopping a car believed to be a threat in a mocked-up street. They also showed how they would stop a pedestrian armed with an axe in the street.
The Cop 26 summit is being held at the Scottish Events Campus.