Police chief says attack on London inevitable

LONDON - An attack on the capital's financial district is inevitable despite tighter security in the wake of the July bombings on the capital's transport network, the area's police chief said in an interview published on Tuesday.

James Hart, who heads the City of London police force, said police had disrupted "hostile reconnaissance" of the region several times but made no arrests.

He did not give details of which buildings had been staked out, saying only that they were businesses, iconic sites and prominent buildings.

"Every successful terrorist group pre-surveys its target," Hart said in an interview carried on the Financial Times website.

"There is no doubt that we have been subject to that surveillance. If you want to hurt the government ... where better to hit than at the financial centre?"

London is home to scores of banks, law firms, the London Stock Exchange and the Bank of England. Tourists attractions include St Paul's Cathedral and the Monument, a stone tower commemorating the 1666 Great Fire of London.

Hart said it was only a matter of time before bombers targeted the City, bombed twice by the IRA in the early 1990s.

"Look at the number of times we were hit by the IRA," Hart said. "I think (another attack) is a question of when rather than if."

He said security in the district had been tightened since the July 7 bombings, which killed 52 people on three London trains and a bus, and the failed July 21 attacks also targeting city transport.

Hart told the FT he believed those behind the July bombings were not linked to al Qaeda, contradicting previous statements by London police chief Sir Ian Blair.

Instead, the bombers were a third-tier grouping with intellectual sympathies to al Qaeda propaganda, Hart said.

- REUTERS