Security chief warns Capital 'vulnerable' to terror attack

Published on Wednesday 6 May 2009 10:20

EDINBURGH'S banks, the Scottish Parliament, the Festival and Murrayfield are all potential terrorist targets, the UK's Security Minister has warned.

While Lord West has urged people not to panic, he said the public should remain vigilant, adding if they saw a car with smoking canisters, they should "tell someone".

The former naval chief, brought into Gordon Brown's government two years ago, said that as the financial centre of Scotland, Edinburgh remained "vulnerable" and said it would be "foolhardy" to think otherwise.

He was in Edinburgh to launch the latest phase of the UK's anti-terrorism strategy, and told an audience of senior police officers, security planners and community representatives that attacks in Exeter, Bristol, Birmingham and Glasgow had shown London was not the only target.

In an interview with the Evening News, he spelled out the terrorist threat to the Capital.

He said: "The important thing to remember is everywhere can be threatened.

"If you think of Edinburgh, although RBS have done a fairly good job of trying to destroy themselves, we know from the World Trade Centre attack, al-Qaeda and the terrorist groups they inspire hate successful capitalism and you have some really big banks here.

"This is the financial centre of Scotland and in many ways is a world centre. That has to make it vulnerable.

"I've got no specific intelligence telling me that, but it would be very foolhardy to think it wasn't."

He said there was a balance to be struck between persuading people to take the risk seriously and not inducing panic.

"What I don't want is the British public to be going round thinking 'Oh my God, we're going to die' because that's not true. There are a lot of people doing really good work looking after them."

He accepted the Festival and the Tattoo could be vulnerable too.

"You might think 'Why would they want to do that? What is there in this?'. What's in it is they get huge publicity. They don't care a jot about killing people because of their warped view of Islam. It's just the sort of thing they want."

Lord West recalled the terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in March. "What that means is all bets are off even on sports teams, so somewhere like Murrayfield is under threat – you know, large crowds."

But he said people should not be deterred from going to the Festival, the Tattoo, the parliament or Murrayfield – though he urged them to be alert.

"My message would be to get on and enjoy it; come to them, have fun, enjoy them – because that's cocking a snook at the terrorists, but always be vigilant."

And he recalled how the botched plot to bomb London's Tiger Tiger nightclub had been discovered when a member of staff saw vapour streaming from a car packed with gas canisters.

"If you see a car with canisters in the back that are smoking, tell someone. Be vigilant, but don't let it spoil your fun."

FOUR-PRONGED APPROACH

THE UK government's counter-terrorism strategy has four key elements:

&#149 Pursue: to stop terrorist attacks

&#149 Prevent: to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting violent extremism

&#149 Protect: to strengthen protection against terrorist attack

&#149 Prepare: where an attack cannot be stopped, to mitigate its impact

By 2011, the Government will spend 3.5 billion a year on counter-terrorism and security measures.