Posted on May 3, 2017

Children Must Learn How to Cope in Terror Attacks, Says Scotland Yard

Ben Farmer, Telegraph, May 3, 2017

7/7 bombings memorial, Hyde Park, London, Britain

Flowers are left at the 7/7 memorial in Hyde Park ahead of the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks…7/7 bombings memorial, Hyde Park, London, Britain – 30 Jun 2015. (Credit Image: © Matthew Chattle/Rex Features/ZUMA Wire)

Children must be taught how to deal with a major terrorist attack in the same way they have been told to be wary of strangers, a senior Scotland Yard officer has said.

The Government’s campaign telling members of the public how to keep safe if they are caught in a Paris-style rampage must also be taught to children.

Asst Dept Commissioner Lucy D’Orsi, the National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesman for protective security, said any terrorist attack on a crowded building or busy public space is likely to affect a large number of young people as well as adults.

The Government launched its ‘Run, Hide, Tell’ campaign in 2015, soon after the Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed during a series of gun and bomb attacks and restaurants, bars and a concert hall.

The terrorism threat level has been judged severe in Britain for the past three years, meaning an attack is considered highly likely.

DAC D’Orsi told the World Counter Terror Congress in London: “When I was at school, everybody used to talk about stranger danger and that was the sort of buzz phrase and it’s still a thing I remember today.

“Run Hide Tell, for me that messaging needs to be to children as well as to the broader public. If we take a lot of our crowded places, and some of the places that you will work in. We know that at keys times they are a hub that attracts a lot of young people to go to those places.

“The need to share the Run, Hide, Tell messaging in the same way I had stranger danger, I think for me is exceptionally important.”