Scottish police train to battle terrorist attack
POLICE Scotland is specifically training its firearms officers to respond to multi-target attacks like the ones recently witnessed in Paris, it has been revealed.
Following on from the horrors in the French capital a fortnight ago, the force has re-examined and restructured its approach to tackling potential Islamist terror cells.
But, in the time since the attacks, the number of tip-offs from within Scotland’s Muslim communities in relation to their concerns regarding radicalisation has soared.
At a Press conference yesterday, senior Police Scotland figures said they did not have any intelligence to suggest terrorists are planning to mount an attack here.
The force has about 275 officers who patrol in armed response vehicles (ARVs), with the force also having a number of specialist firearms officers, including counter-terrorist specialists.
There are also a “significant number” of other officers trained to use weapons if needed, although the force insists the exact number is “operationally sensitive”.
Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins said: “If we had a Paris-style attack and it was in one of our major cities, almost certainly there would be ARVs in that area.
“So there would be a response, but when you see the ferocity of the Paris attack, that’s what we are training our ARV officers for, in fact all our firearms officers, to understand the threat they might face.”
He added: “Up until Paris, the planning assumption was based on a two-site attack and what the police capability was to respond. Clearly, in Paris, there was a significant number of sites, seven different locations, and our planning assumptions have got to evolve around what we know.”
Police Scotland has carried out more than 60 exercises over the last two years aimed at testing the response of officers and others to a terrorist attack.
On Tuesday, November 10, just three days before the Paris attacks, hundreds of people were involved in a major event simulating the hijacking of a plane.
Mr Higgins also said exercises in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee had tested how quickly ARVs could be on the scene if terrorists armed with guns went on the rampage.
Police said they had seen a three-fold increase in the intelligence they receive from communities about a possible terrorist threat.
Assistant Chief Constable Ruaraidh Nicolson said: “We don’t have a specific threat in Scotland but we wouldn’t want Scotland to feel like it is the soft underbelly, so we’re working in exactly the same way as south of the Border.
“Are terrorists focused on Scotland? From the information we have, they aren’t. But does that mean we wouldn’t have an attack here? I just can’t say that, so we need to plan.”
