Met Police Chief Meets Army

On the day troops took up positions around London landmarks to free up armed police to patrol the streets in the wake of the Manchester bomb attack, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick joined the Joint Military Commander for London, Major General Ben Bathurst on a visit to soldiers stationed around the Palace of Westminster.

Speaking just yards from where PC Keith Palmer was murdered outside Parliament in March, Britain's top police officer expressed her gratitude to the armed forces for their support. 

"The military are here at a number of locations in London in order to allow us, the police, to put more armed officers on the streets to support the public, and to protect events."

The decision to deploy troops follows Prime Minister Theresa May's announcement of an increase in the terror threat level to its highest rating of "critical"

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner said there were "clearly a number of unknowns" since the attack on Monday and security services needed to get "a better understanding" of the situation before the threat level could be reduced. 

"When it does, clearly there will be a de-escalation requirement for military colleagues but I am not going to put a timescale on that."

Ms Dick said people were used "to some extent" to seeing the military during events, such as the London Olympics in 2012. She added  "I recognise that this is different and we of course think about that, we think about it carefully.

"I've just been talking to my officers and they are very comfortable to have their military colleagues next to them"