Actually, I think the article is off just a bit... the UK police (certainly US forces) would not hesitate to shoot contaminated individuals in the event of a bioweapon attack... there would certainly be mass hysteria and people fleeing in all directions in such an event. In that case, forces would likely be directed to fire on civilians in an attempt to prevent spread of a massive bio weapon.

Pretty scary regardless.

I do find it interesting that this comes from England, where it is highly unusual for police to be armed.

Dragonrider, you`re quite right it unusual for police officers to be armed. However, there is with all of our police forces a good deal of officers who serve on dedicated armoured response teams. This is most especially true in the large cities such as London, Birmingham, manchester, where organised and gun crime is a greater threat and more prevalent.

Since it is likely any such attack would happen in these places the police forces in those areas would be well equiped to deal.

" there would certainly be mass hysteria and people fleeing in all directions in such an event"

I think you may well be right. It would be lovely if as the Home office thought everyone would react in that proper British manner and stay calm but I doubt they would.

And I have to say sometimes this sort of thing is necessary even if it is nasty.

Very well.

And me, if I had to be contaminated and I was seeing a cop firing to me, I hope for him he'd have a bodyarmour in kevlar !!! I don't need to say more.

I keep seeing the part in the book "The Stand" by Stephen King, where (I think it was in LA, or maybe NYC) where the surivivors of "Captain Tripps" comes upon masses of bodies crowded near a tunnel leading out of the city... soldiers, now dead of the disease themselves, had set up machine gun nests and were mowing down the frightened masses as they tried to escape the diseased city...