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Police in London, Manchester and other British cities said they were reviewing security on Tuesday after a suspected suicide attack killed 22 people at Manchester Arena.
Referring to the capital’s national stadiums for football and rugby, London Metropolitan Police said “a full review of the security and policing operations for the weekend’s sporting events – the culmination of the football and rugby seasons at Wembley and Twickenham – is under way.
“This will include the deployment of extra armed officers, while Operation Hercules,
which sees the deployment of a range of mobile and static overt armed officers will be stepped up to protect the capital.
“This is designed to make London as hostile an environment as possible for any would-be attacker,” it said, adding that “police deployments will continually change to be most effective and avoid predictability.”
Cdr. Jane Connors said her force was determined to do all it could to protect the capital.
“That means that over the coming days as you go to a music venue, go shopping, travel to work or head off to the fantastic sporting events, you will see more officers, including armed officers,” Connors said.
Andrew Parker, the Head of Security Service MI5, said his officers were working with the police to help the investigation in Manchester.
“We remain relentlessly focused, in numerous current operations, on doing all we can to combat the scourge of terrorism and keep the country safe,” Parker said in a statement.
After chairing a meeting of the government’s emergency committee, Prime Minister Theresa May said Britain’s terrorist threat level would remain at “severe” – the second-highest level, meaning an attack is “highly likely” – which Britain has kept for more than two years.
“But the independent Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, which sets the threat level on the basis of the intelligence available to them, will continue to assess this throughout today and in the days ahead,” May said.
