Firearms attack less likely in London than elsewhere in Europe, says Met chief

A paris-style firearms attack is less likely to happen in London than the rest of Europe, according to Metropolitan police chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe.

Speaking on BBC radio 4’s Today Programme, Hogan-Howe described London as a ‘very safe city’, and set out a number of reasons why England’s capital was safer than elsewhere in Europe.

He said: “First, we do not have a land border with Europe, so smuggling and travelling across borders is harder. Secondly, criminals do not have easy access to firearms; it is possible [to get access to guns] but not in the way that we see for example in France. Third, the way that police and security services work here is pretty remarkable and you do not see that in the rest of the world.”

Speaking of the attacks in paris on 13 November, Hogan-Howe said he was confident that measures were in place to ‘ensure we can respond well to that sort of incident’.

He also said that the government’s decision to not cut police spending means that a permanent increase in the number of firearms officers is possible, and he believes the number of firearms officers should be doubled.

Additionally, Hogan-Howe said that the Met was considering rolling out more tasers to officers, after a knife attack in Leytonstone in December ended when police used them on the suspect.

He said: “The prime minister called yesterday for serious consideration of more availability of tasers, not only in London but around the country. So we are having a look to see whether that would be a wise response, not only to Leytonstone but to the broader terrorist threat… It can be a help if there are terrible circumstances.”