I was just on Tottenham Court Road, London, where a man had people hostage with a bomb

Ask me anything...

It's all over the news at the moment, it was mental. No way is the UK ready for the Olympics.

Meh. One loony does not a lack of safety make. How is this related to the Olympics again?

Just got back from there aswell! What a nightmare!

The guy has just been arrested.

reply to post by Scope and a Beam


It's been all over sky news all day. The situation is over now as well. Oh, and no casualties (thankfully) and there was also no bomb either as far as I'm aware.

On a final short note - This has nothing to do with the Olympics. Security for that will obviously be much tighter than a random street in Tottenham on a random Friday afternoon.. to be fair and all.

I mean It just seems very unfair to say we're completely unprepared for the Olympics because of what happened today. I think if anything the police reacted very well to it.

seems to have just been a loon. he failed a training course and wanted his money back.

had 4 cannisters strapped to himself.

probably cannisters of whipped cream or something like that

Originally posted by Scope and a Beam
Ask me anything...

It's all over the news at the moment, it was mental. No way is the UK ready for the Olympics.

hi op
just seen it on the news myself
the man is michael green
dont know if hes brit or foreign
it says he had gas cannisters strapped to him
hes 50 yrs old....
as for the olympics
remember the sams

reply to post by Rising Against


I disagree. I was stood there watching 2 police try to cordon off a whole street (Whitmore street). People were literally running through the cordon and wondering around inside of it. I was even cordoned into the no-go area and asked why the hell I thought it was okay to walk in the cordoned zone by police...

If people genuinely think this has no relevance to the Olympics then fair enough, but it's less than 100 days away and this was, like you said, one small street in London. Personally I didn't feel it was massively secure by any stretch.

reply to post by Scope and a Beam


Well, at the end of the day you was there and not me so we'll all have to take your word for that. All I'm going on is what I saw live on Sky news you see. But from my point of view, which of course wasn't as great as yours, It did look rather under control with everything in place to take control of whatever *may* come about; whether it be a bomb, or whether he comes out shooting for example. But, then again, I didn't catch the beginning of this, I saw much later on.

Situations like this are always going to be rather hectic towards the beginning though, regardless.

reply to post by Rising Against


True, but I think being there it was more the sense of how bizarre it all was that threw me more (in hindsight). I honestly would not be at all surprised if this was a test.

Originally posted by Scope and a Beam
It's all over the news at the moment, it was mental. No way is the UK ready for the Olympics.

edit on 27-4-]

How on earth did you come to that assessment?

By that logic, any murder committed between now and July could be seen a sign of unreadyness... Or a traffic jam.. Or a burst water main...

One nutjob pissed at not passing some course (or whatever) is just an isolated incident. Hardly indicative of any failure of the security services. extra DIV