LONDON: Police and emergency services took part in the biggest counter-terrorism drill held in London to date on Tuesday, with about 1,000 officers testing their response to a potential militant attack on the British capital.
Britain is already on a state of high alert following an attack by a gunman at Tunisian holiday resort last week which killed 39 people, most of them British tourists.
The two-day exercise was planned before that, following attacks in Paris in January in which gunmen killed 17 people in a rampage, a government spokesman said.
But following the Tunisia violence, the government has warned the public that attempts to stage an attack in Britain were possible.
Most of the drill will take place out of public view in several locations across London. But reporters saw about half a dozen armed police officers, some clutching shields, entering a disused underground station in central London to hunt down “terrorists” as gun shots rang out on Tuesday morning.
Other personnel could be seen treating injured “victims” on a pavement.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police, Maxine de Brunner, told Reuters the scale of exercise, was larger than anything undertaken previously in the capital.
It involved London’s transport authority, local government and the Ministry of Defense and will see the government’s emergency Cobra committee convened.
Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament on Monday the training exercise would “test and refine the UK’s preparedness for dealing with a serious terrorist attack.”
It also takes place a week before the 10th anniversary of the suicide bombings on London’s transport network by four British militants which killed 52 people.
London police hone skills to tackle terror
London police hone skills to tackle terror
Epstein scandal deals new blow to Norway crown princess
- Her name appears at least 1,000 times in the millions of new Epstein documents
- Mette-Marit had ceased contact with late US sex offender in 2014
OSLO: Norway’s crown princess, whose son goes on trial Tuesday on rape charges, found herself embroiled in another scandal this weekend after newly unsealed files revealed her unexpected friendship with late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The latest scandal has even raised questions about whether Mette-Marit, a commoner who married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001, could still become queen one day.
Her name appears at least 1,000 times in the millions of new Epstein documents released by the US Department of Justice on Friday, according to Norwegian daily VG.
Messages between the two published in Norwegian media date from 2011 to 2014.
In one email, Mette-Marit asked Epstein if it was “inappropriate for a mother to suggest two naked women carrying a surfboard for my 15 yr old son’s wallpaper.”
In another, she told him he was “very charming.”
When Epstein told her he was in Paris “on (a) wife hunt” in 2012, she replied saying the French capital is “good for adultery” and “Scandis (are) better wife material.”
Epstein had at that point already pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution.
The files show she also stayed at his house in Florida for four days in 2013.
On Saturday, Mette-Marit addressed her “embarrassing” friendship with the disgraced financier, who died in 2019 by suicide in jail as he awaited trial for sex crimes against minors.
“I showed poor judgment and I deeply regret having had any contact with Epstein. It is simply embarrassing,” she said in a statement sent to AFP by the royal palace.
The 52-year-old said she was responsible “for not having checked Epstein’s background more closely and not understanding quickly enough what kind of person he was.”
Yet in 2011, Mette-Marit wrote to Epstein that she had “googled” him, adding “it didn’t look too good” and ending the sentence with a smiling emoji.
She did not specify exactly what she was referring to.
According to the palace, Mette-Marit had ceased contact with Epstein in 2014 because she felt he was “trying to use his relationship with the crown princess as leverage with other people.”
- Terrible timing -
“It almost gives the impression that they were close friends,” historian and royal expert Ole-Jorgen Schulsrud-Hansen said.
He noted however the broader context of the messages was unknown.
“A crown princess is never a private person,” he noted.
“This shows in any case a lack of judgment and that all the ‘safety catches’ around her also failed.”
On Sunday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said he “agreed” that Mette-Marit had made an error in judgment.
“Can Mette-Marit become queen after this?” Kjetil Alstadheim, chief political editor of Norway’s paper of reference Aftenposten, asked in an op-ed piece, leaving the question unanswered.
The timing could not be worse for Mette-Marit.
On Tuesday, her 29-year-old son Marius Borg Hoiby, born from a relationship before her marriage to Crown Prince Haakon, goes on trial at Oslo’s district court.
He is accused of allegedly committing 38 crimes, including the rape of four women as well as assault and drug offenses. He could face up to 16 years in jail if found guilty.
Hoiby denies the most serious charges.
The royal couple will not attend the seven-week trial, and Crown Prince Haakon told reporters that Mette-Marit would be away on a private trip during that period.
These woes come on top of her own health issues.
She suffers from an incurable lung illness, a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis that makes it difficult for her to breathe.
In December, the palace announced that she would likely have to undergo a lung transplant, a risky operation generally considered a last resort.
“She is someone who is under much pressure. But that should not stop any criticism, if it is factual,” said Schulsrud-Hansen.
