Mayor backs 'shoot-to-kill'
2005-07-22 21:27
London - London Mayor Ken Livingstone said a shoot-to-kill policy was "overwhelmingly" the way to deal with suspected suicide bombers after police shot a man dead on the subway Friday.
The suspect was gunned down in Stockwell Underground station in the south of the city, with London's Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair saying the shooting was "directly linked" to their anti-terror investigation.
Police are investigating the July 7 bomb attacks on London transport that killed 56 people and Thursday's four similar attempted bombings.
"If you are dealing with someone who might be a suicide bomber, if they remain conscious they could trigger plastic explosives or whatever device is on them," Livingstone said.
"Therefore overwhelmingly in these circumstances it is going to be a shoot-to-kill policy."
Blair said the man shot at Stockwell station was challenged by officers in Stockwell and subsequently fired at. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, he added.
Livingstone declined to discuss details of the Stockwell shooting but remarked: "I think we are making people safer by better intelligence and a better use of our resources.
"With each of these attacks we have responded more rapidly and effectively and I'm glad it went as well as it did today."