London's new skyscrapers risk making business more vulnerable to terrorist attack, a leading security adviser has warned. Buildings such as the "gherkin", & the planned 66-floor London Bridge Tower, known as the Shard of Glass, are potential "nightmare" scenarios which will prove difficult to protect or evacuate in an emergency, Pete Brown, senior risk auditor with G4S Security, has said. "These very tall new buildings made of mirror glass do cause a headache from a counter-terrorist point of view," Mr Brown told the FT. In the aftermath of the attacks in the US on 9/11, the focus of much new prestige building design has been on ensuring structure is robust enough to prevent the total collapse of the building & to facilitate evacuation & work by emergency services. But Mr Brown, who will be a speaker at a security seminar in London this month, warned that in the 4½ years since the attack on New York's Twin Towers, tall buildings continue to provide a potential "iconic" target for any terrorist group wanting to grab the headlines. Mr Brown added that both the scale and the multi-tenancy occupancy nature of tall buildings also complicated effective command and control evacuation procedures. G4S Security, one of the leading private security companies, has been advising businesses in the City on how to improve their protection and contingency planning against terrorist attack following last summer's London bombings. In recent weeks, a number of City institutions have attended briefings by senior anti-terrorist police. They have been told that the threat of new attacks remains high and that every effort should be made to update systems and training of staff to minimise the risk. Mr Brown's comments could prove controversial. The Shard of Glass, championed by Ken Livingstone, London's mayor, but opposed so far on ethical and design grounds by English Heritage and Prince Charles, remains on the drawing board after receiving planning permission from the Office of the Deputy Prime-Minister. Another security adviser, John Wyatt of the SDS Group, said that the risk of terrorist attack on tall buildings should "not be exaggerated". Mr Wyatt said current regulations meant the design and construction of tall buildings in the UK, as in the US, were more robust and responsive to safety needs.
