Brit police in training for ‘26/11 Mumbai-style’ gun attacks

LONDON - British security chiefs have ordered an acceleration in police training to prepare for any future ‘26/11 Mumbai-style’ gun attacks in the country.

According to the BBC, a series of counter-terrorism exercises are being held with police training alongside units of British Army’s Special Air Service (SAS).

The drills follow the recent threat of Al-Qaeda training terrorists in Pakistan to carry out co-ordinated terror attacks in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

Al-Qaeda is believed to be planning to copy the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, which began on November 26 and lasted until November 29 killing at least 173 people and wounding at least 308 people.

Ajmal Kasab, the only attacker who was captured alive, disclosed that the attackers were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistan-based militant organization.

LeT is considered a terrorist organization by India, the US, the UK, the United Nations, among others.

Meanwhile, former Security Minister Lord West said that the police must be properly trained to deal with such terror attacks.

“These people like the Mumbai terrorists, are a bit like soldiers, they do fire and support, move forward, all they want to do is kill as many people as possible, with slightly heavier weapons than our police have. And therefore you have to give heavy weapons to the police and train them how to do it,” West said.

“There is no way, except at immense cost, you could have SAS-level trained troops in every part of the country to be able to respond in the timescale you’d need. The police are there and have to do that first response,” he added. (ANI)