Police to increase security in London this weekend ahead of FA Cup and Aviva Premiership Finals – TheLiberal.ie – Our News, Your Views

Police to increase security in London this weekend ahead of FA Cup and Aviva Premiership Finals




Police authorities in the UK have confirmed that security will be increased for upcoming sporting events this weekend.

The much expected security increase comes after Monday night’s Manchester Arena terrorist attack which killed 22 people and injured 59 others.

It is believed armed police along with the assistance of the British Army will patrol both Wembley and Twickenham stadiums which due to host two major finals on Saturday afternoon.

In a weekend that will see over 170,000 spectators descend on London to watch both the FA Cup final between Chelsea V Arsenal and the Aviva Premiership Rugby Final between Wasps V The Exeter Chiefs, the Met have decided to increase security throughout the city. 

In a statement, the Met confirmed it would undertake a thorough review of its operations for the finals, with a provision of additional armed police already in place.

The statement reads as follows: “A full review of the security and policing operations for the weekend’s sporting events – the culmination of the football and rugby seasons at Wembley and Twickenham – is underway. This will include the deployment of extra armed officers.”

“Operation Hercules – which sees the deployment of a range of mobile and static overt armed officers – will be stepped up to protect the Capital. This is designed to make London as hostile an environment as possible for any would-be attacker.”

“That means the locations, types of tactics and the numbers of officers deployed at once will continually change to be most effective and avoid predictability.”

“The Met will continue to do everything possible to protect the Capital not just through the use of armed officers but the ongoing work by specialist detectives in the Counter Terrorism Command; working with partner agencies and gathering community intelligence.”

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