2012 Games Pose Biggest Security Risk In Decades

DAVID STRINGER

LONDON (AP) — London faces the largest security challenge since World War II when it hosts the 2012 Olympics, British security minister Alan West said Friday.

West told a London conference that the British capital will almost certainly be at a higher risk of a terrorist attack as an estimated 15,000 athletes, 14,000 coaches and officials and 20,000 media workers arrive for the games.

He said the country's threat level will likely rise to severe — the second-highest rating on a five-point scale — meaning an attack is considered highly likely.

"We are not complacent. We do not underestimate the scale of the Olympics challenge," West told the Royal United Services Institute think tank.

West, a former head of Britain's navy and defense intelligence staff, said the event would be "possibly the greatest security challenge the U.K. has faced since the Second World War."

Since 2001, Britain has invested heavily in anti-terrorism measures, increasing the size of domestic spy agency MI5 and raising the country's security budget to $6 billion.