Ring of steel for royal wedding: Met gets new powers to stop violence

Tough call: police are determined to prevent scenes like this with a breakaway group of demonstrators during a march against cuts occurring during the Royal wedding on April 29. They will use stringent stop and search tactics

Tough new police tactics are to be introduced to tackle violent anarchists plotting to target the royal wedding, it was revealed today.

The Met plans to use stringent stop and search powers to prevent a repeat of Saturday's violence when a mob of 500 broke away from a peaceful TUC demo and rampaged through the West End. They attacked police, smashed shop windows and daubed banks. The Ritz was targeted and Fortnum & Masons in Piccadilly was occupied, terrifying shoppers and staff.

Senior officers said they had information that anarchists are "deliberately targeting" the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton and they were working to identify and arrest ringleaders.

Royal aides are holding urgent discussions with officers over security plans for the event. Boris Johnson today called on the Met to review the information they have before the ceremony on April 29. He said: "I am going to make sure we have a full analysis of what to expect and make sure nothing of the kind of thing that happened on Saturday happens again.

"It will not be tolerated and it would be extremely unwise of anyone to try to spoil a happy day of national celebration. I will not tolerate any disruption of the royal wedding."

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, said he had asked Met Commander Bob Broadhurst to appear before the committee tomorrow to explain the violence and the measures needed to prevent a repetition.

Mr Vaz called for "bold and radical" measures and warned terrorists might exploit the mayhem on future occasions if the police continued to be unable to stop violence erupting. "We simply cannot go on like this," he said. "With the royal wedding and then the Olympics next year, there are too many big things coming up to allow this to continue to happen every time. It is for the police to tell us what needs to be done."

Met Assistant Commissioner Lynne Owens, who is in overall charge of public order policing, dismissed claims of a "softly softly" approach to Saturday's violence. She said: "A significant number of people did not come to protest peacefully but split off into a group of 500 or so. We policed this group very robustly."

Commander Broadhurst said it was difficult to arrest potential rioters before the march took place but he called for more effort and resources to tackle the threat to public order. He told the Standard there needed to be a public debate over where police should direct their resources, adding: "We are saying we need a bit more focus on these extremist groups.

"But we have to recognise that people have a right to protest and we would need to have some very strong evidence to take pre-emptive action."

He said the Met would take a different approach to policing the royal wedding. Asked if that could involve stopping and searching people on their way to central London on the day of the wedding, he said: "We are looking specifically at the royal wedding and what we can do to prevent Saturday's disorder and violence creeping into that event.

Home Secretary Theresa May was due to update MPs on the violence this afternoon.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper was expected to call for a "wider strategy" to deal with "anarchist thugs" in the same way that football hooliganism was tackled.

Police have charged 149 people with various offences in connection with the disorder on Saturday after making 201 arrests. Many have been bailed pending inquiries.

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