'Almost impossible' for emergency services to ensure public safety during terror attack, ex-MI6 chief admits
A former chief of MI6 has admitted it is "almost impossible" for police and security services to guarantee public safety in the face of a terrorist attack.Sir Richard Dearlove, who used to oversee the Secret Intelligence Service, joined Camilla Tominey in the aftermath of the horrific atrocity that had taken place in Sydney. Twelve people have been killed, and many more remain injured after two gunmen opened fire on crowds celebrating the first night of Hanukkah. One gunman was shot dead at the scene, while another remains in critical condition in custody.New South Wales Police Chief Chris Minns has since declared the incident an act of terrorism which had targeted Australian Jews.Sir Richard told Camilla Tominey on GB News: "The question really will be in the minds of the Australian investigators. "Are these two lone wolves? Are there other people involved? Is it a conspiracy? Are there other events being planned?"You're going to look at it in that sort of context. My guess is that this is a couple of wildcards who might claim an association with an organisation. The former Head of MI6 claimed that it was 'almost impossible' to guarantee public safety in such a situation like Bondi | GETTY"They might say they're Hamas, or they might say they're Isis, they might say they're al-Qaeda, but probably it hasn't been planned as a conspiracy by a group of people."It's probably, almost a self-standing group, or that's my guess, obviously, but that's what it looks like at the moment."He added: "It's difficult to make an interpretation of this event, but I think the one thing I would say is that, if you are the security authorities, a random group of shooters in an urban situation is a very, very difficult problem to control."This is a nightmare for the security authorities, for the police to respond. It looks to me as though the Australian police reacted pretty damn quickly."Police presence in Bondi remains high | GETTY He said it was not possible to guarantee that people will be completely safe from terror attacks, acknowledging Australia's "pretty strict gun laws"."But they aren't as strict as in the UK," he added. "And as I say, once someone's running loose in an urban environment, this is the risk of what's going to happen."I don't know whether you recall, but I did have some discussions way back - do you remember that shooting event in Norway, which was that children's summer camp, which was absolutely horrendous, and the problem with that was the slowness of the Norwegian police to respond?"There was a parallel bomb explosion to distract them."In 2011, at least 85 died after a gunman went on a shooting spree at a Norway youth camp, just a few hours after a bombing killed seven people in the country's capital, Oslo."That was an individual that was not a sort of ideological terrorist event, but it just shows you the huge difficulty, even when you got very efficient security and good intelligence coverage," Sir Richard added."Let's say, of the extent to which radicalisation is a problem, you can't get a 100 per cent result in terms of making people safe. "It’s, I'm sorry to say, almost impossible."
