An Explosive Introduction

Originally I was going to use my first post to tell you a little more about this site and the gentlemen involved in its creation but what with the mad happenings of yesterday I’ll save that for another time and instead launch straight into some news that mattered to me on Friday. 

 

If you haven’t already heard a significant part of central London came to a complete standstill yesterday when police were alerted to a potential bomb threat/hostage situation cropping up in Shropshire House, just off Tottenham Court Road.

After failing a test for his HGV licence and holding a grudge against ‘Advantage Training Services’, Michael Green went to the company’s offices with gas canisters strapped to his chest threatening to blow himself up. The siege was quickly resolved when the police took Mr Green into custody with no casualties involved. Further details and accounts can be found on various news sites and Michael Green has been charged with possession of a weapon, false imprisonment and making a bomb hoax.

 

What a mad event to occur on our local London streets?! Rumours spread like wild fire throughout the offices of London as to whether this was isolated or part of something bigger. Before news networks fed any details the gossip put me in mind of an incident much like ‘Die Hard’. Thankfully it wasn’t as serious as that. Still, the actions of one man did stop one of the busiest parts of London for a day. Plus you gotta appreciate the irony that it should all occur in the same building that houses the news team from the Huffington Post UK (talk about a story falling into their lap). 

 

A lot of passing comments have been made about this incident in relation to the upcoming Olympics. Though it does put the news story into context it also has an inherently negative spin to it and perhaps we’re not seeing the bigger picture here. If there is but one positive aspect to take from this incident its that it highlights how quickly and efficiently the London emergency services were in handling a nightmarish situation like this. In under an hour they had shut down and secured one of the busiest parts of the capital, closed the relevant tube stations, diverted traffic, got people to safety, minimised as many risks as possible and were out in full force in the immediate and surrounding area. Public knowledge of the incident started at 13:30 and by 15:00 the police had the man responsible in handcuffs. One interviewee upon evacuating an adjacent building initially thought it was some kind of emergency exercise for the Olympics and in a way he was right. Some have said it was the worst possible thing to happen only months away from the grand sporting spectacle, this reporter would argue the opposite – it demonstrates the continued dedication and hard work of our emergency services in action and by the way this was handled, if anything, puts me more at ease. 

Angelic Rogue