Security: No rest from fears of dissident threat

Published on Monday 16 May 2011 18:32

FEARS of a terrorist attack in the streets close to Buckingham Palace have cast a shadow over the Queen's visit to Ireland.

The Metropolitan Police said yesterday it had received a coded warning from dissident Irish republican groups of a bomb threat in central London.

Yesterday's threat was revealed hours after a security alert led to the closure of The Mall, the wide avenue leading up to Buckingham Palace. It is believed that the alert resulted from a disturbed manhole cover, sparking a major police operation in the early hours of yesterday morning.

There was also understood to have been a controlled explosion of a suitcase in nearby Northumberland Avenue.

"A wide range of overt and covert tactics will continue to be used in London," a police spokesman said. "Londoners should continue to go about their business as usual but we encourage the public to remain vigilant."

But police said no decision had been made to increase the country's terrorism threat level as a result of the warning.

"The threat level from Irish-related terrorism has not increased and remains at substantial - meaning that an attack is a strong possibility," the statement said.

However, David Capitanchik, terrorism expert and honorary professor at Robert Gordon University, said he did not believe the threat from Irish dissidents would return to the days of the 1980s, when terrorist threats - and full-blown attacks - on both the mainland and in Northern Ireland, were commonplace.

"I think in the past, support for republican terrorist groups was more widespread - they were supported by and controlled, huge parts of the Northern Irish economy, but that is no longer the case," said Prof Capitanchek. "Now, the attacks that have been carried out are very much on an individual basis. They are not working in a co-ordinated group in the same way."

Meanwhile, Marian Price, who was jailed for the IRA bombing of the Old Bailey in London in 1973, was yesterday put back behind bars by Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson.

Price, who appeared in court in Londonderry under the name of Marion McGlinchey, had been granted bail ahead of a trial when she will stand accused of encouraging support for an illegal organisation following a dissident republican rally in Derry on Easter Sunday.

She was rearrested after the court heard of fears that she would get involved in threats to disrupt the Queen's visit.