- More than 5,000 police officers will be on duty in London
next week for the state visit of President Bush, in one of the biggest
security operations seen in the capital.
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- Hundreds of armed officers will be used and US Secret
Service agents protecting Mr Bush will also carry weapons.
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- The Metropolitan Police operation, which is likely to
cost at least £5 million, will be focused on central London, where
the president and his wife will be guests of the Queen from Wednesday to
Friday. All police leave has been cancelled.
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- Scotland Yard, which has previously deployed such numbers
only at the Notting Hill Carnival, said yesterday that roads would be closed
to allow the president's convoy to move around London.
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- A proposed demonstration and march by the Stop the War
coalition, which Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner,
has said could be as large as 60,000-strong, will not be allowed to enter
Whitehall and Parliament Square. At a time when the terrorism threat to
London is classed as high, police will also be told they can use controversial
powers to stop and search. All routes used by Mr Bush will be covered by
armed officers and checked for bombs, while plain-clothes officers will
mix with the crowds.
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- Andy Trotter, the deputy assistant commissioner in charge
of territorial policing for the Met, said there had been no intelligence
about a specific terrorist threat to Mr Bush but the general threat was
a "real concern".
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- There would be no large-scale exclusion zones and, though
roads would be closed, pedestrians and demonstrators would be able to stand
behind barriers. Mr Trotter said protesters would be visible to the president.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/1
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