Leader comment: Vehicle attacks the major threat

By The Newsroom
Published 7th Apr 2017, 18:35 BST
Updated 8th Apr 2017, 22:12 BST
Police officers secure the area outside Stockholm Central station, on April 7, 2017 after a truck crashed into department store Ahlens on Drottninggatan, in central Stockholm. / AFP PHOTO / TT News Agency / Jessica GOW / Sweden OUTJESSICA GOW/AFP/Getty ImagesPolice officers secure the area outside Stockholm Central station, on April 7, 2017 after a truck crashed into department store Ahlens on Drottninggatan, in central Stockholm. / AFP PHOTO / TT News Agency / Jessica GOW / Sweden OUTJESSICA GOW/AFP/Getty Images
Police officers secure the area outside Stockholm Central station, on April 7, 2017 after a truck crashed into department store Ahlens on Drottninggatan, in central Stockholm. / AFP PHOTO / TT News Agency / Jessica GOW / Sweden OUTJESSICA GOW/AFP/Getty Images
A new terror attack this time on the streets of Stockholm, and more innocent civilians killed, this time in a popular shopping are of the city. The sort of popular shopping area that draws a crowd of people, the sort of shopping area found in any city or town.

And again the weapon of mass destruction of choice was a lorry, which form part of all of our everyday lives. This time it was stolen, driven away as the driver was unloading. There is not even the paper trail of ownership or hiring to help police discover everybody who was involved.

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It is the first terror attack Sweden has seen since a suicide bombing in 2010, and some observers have said security has been lax. But the best security in the world will not prove 100 per cent effective against this type of attack.

It is true that people can be identified as becoming radical and then monitored by the security services, either reported by the community or picked up through electronic surveillance. But that will not identify everyone, There are some practical steps that can be taken to prevent access to certain areas by vehicles, and these blocks should be deployed where possible, but again it is impossible to prevent vehicular access to every place that people are.

So, as has been said before, these attacks are impossible to absolutely prevent, but you can increase your odds. And one way of increasing the odds of prevention or mitigation in this country wouold be for every police officer to carry a gun. Currently even if a police officer is present when an aattack is perpetrated they have no means of stopping or really even affecting the attack.