British Government Urges Citizens to Watch For Suspicious Behaviour After Madrid Bombing
BBC | March 14 2004
The public must overcome the British reserve and voice their suspicions to help fight terrorism, the defence secretary has warned.
Geoff Hoon said the Madrid rail blasts highlighted the need to alert.
If people report "suspicious and unusual" things the police "will not mind", he told BBC One's Politics Show.
His comments came ahead of an initiative to remind passengers of potential terrorist situations in London by the British Transport Police.
Mr Hoon said: "If there are any packages, any briefcases and suitcases that don't appear to belong to any particular individual they should ask each other.
"They should ask fellow passengers, they should bring it to the attention of guards and those in authority."
He said such co-operative action from the public could make an "enormous difference".
Mr Hoon refused to comment on newspaper reports that marshals could be put on trains in the wake of last Thursday's bombings on commuter trains in Madrid which killing 200 people and injured hundreds others.
'Rapid reaction'
But he said the British Transport Police were "considering a range of measures".
He also said 14 "rapid reaction groups" of reservist troops across the country had been made available to help civil authorities "at very short notice" in the event of a crisis.
Meanwhile, British Transport Police have announced a poster campaign for tube stations, which see more than 3m passengers a day, urging people to keep an eye out for unattended bags.
Echoing Mr Hoon's comments, if the answer to "who owns this bag?" is no one, then passengers are urged to contact the police or station staff.
Police have stressed the campaign is not a specific response to the Madrid train bombs and that there has been no specific upgrading of precautions since the Madrid rail bombings.
Chris Wright, a security expert from the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said the public had to accept there was a risk with trains and tubes and that they "cannot look to the government to provide 100% security in these sorts of circumstance".
He told BBC News 24: "I don't think there is more that can be done physically without completely destroying our freedom to go about life as we've come to expect which, of course, is what the terrorists are trying to achieve."
Transport 'vulnerable'
He said the poster campaign was "a timely reminder" but that he thought the public would alert police to anything suspicious "as a matter of course".
Earlier on Sunday, the UK's rail regulator emphasised railway stations and transport links generally in Britain were "vulnerable".
Tom Winsor told GMTV's Sunday Programme: "I think the British Transport Police and the other security services, together with Network Rail and the train operators, do take every possible step to ensure that there is constant vigilance through closed-circuit TV.
"They have taken away litter bins, the surface on which any explosive devices could be left are sloping so they will fall off - things of that kind.
He said land transport was "vulnerable" because explosive devices could be placed on tracks as well as in railway stations and on trains. |
