Watch Out For Olympic Security Exercises On The Thames

Lindsey
By Lindsey Last edited 146 months ago
Watch Out For Olympic Security Exercises On The Thames

The Metropolitan Police and Royal Marines begin a week of 'familiarisation' exercises on the Thames today, as part of security planning and preparation for the Olympics.

If you listened to the podcast episode where N Quentin Woolf and Scout London's Jim Zambrano chatted whilst walking the perimeter of the Olympic Park, you may have picked up on a suggestion that the Thames might present a good opportunity for anyone wishing to cause mayhem during the greatest show on earth.

We suspect Olympic security were also listening, since they stopped our perambulating podcasters, but this week's training exercises publicly reassure us that they've thought of that. Police vessels, Royal Marines vessels, and helicopters will be visible on certain parts of the river as the two forces ensure they have the same level of knowledge about how the river operates and work out how their tactics will work together.

Scotland Yard say, "this exercise is not in response to any specific threat, but is part of our planning to pre-deploy certain specialist assets to bolster our operation."

In other words, don't panic.

See also: Ground-to-Air Missiles for Olympics?

Last Updated 16 January 2012