Waltham Forest under high alert for London 2012 Olympic Games security
Waltham Forest, which falls in the area covered by the Olympic Park, has been notified of being in the lime light as a target of extremism which is practised by factions inspired by the al-Qaida.
The forest has been categorised under the high alert category during the time that the London 2012 Olympic Games would be taking place.
The Waltham Forest has come in the high-level alert category because of the fact that its residents include individuals that are wanted by the police for suspicion of or having taken part in terrorist activities that fall in sync with al-Qaida terrorism.
Waltham Forest is situated in the north east part of London and will be serving as a camp site when the Olympic Games come to town in the coming few months. Not only that, the forest is also going to accommodate part of the Olympic Park.
In order to maintain security of the area and ensure nothing unpleasant occurs between July 27 and August 12 when the Games are going to take place, the councillors of the region have been given a document titled as the restricted counter-terrorism local
profile (CTLP) by the Home Office.
The document informs the councillors of “a high-level threat of AQ-inspired extremism from males aged between 20 and 38. The individuals of interest to the police are predominantly British-born second and third-generation migrants from south-east Asia. There
is also interest from a number of Middle Eastern political movements and AQ-affiliated groups from north Africa.”
Concern of a terror attack in the region of the Waltham Forest during the Games which will attract a total of 5.5 million people to the capital of England is also echoed from other quarters.
Valentina Soria, who is a counter terrorism expert at the Royal United Services Institute voiced her views in the following manner.
“The security agencies will be keen to take less and less risk so will try to investigate any intelligence leads of this kind that will come up. Security around the Olympics will be their first concern,” she said.
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