Probe after attack on royal car

BRITISH officials defended the country’s security practices yesterday amid a flurry of questions over the royal family’s safety after rampaging student protesters attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife Camilla.

The chief of the Metropolitan Police pledged to investigate after protesters set upon the heir to the throne’s Rolls Royce as it drove through London’s busy West End on Thursday night. The royal couple was attending a charity event at London’s Palladium theatre.

Students poured into central London to protest the trebling of university tuition fees as lawmakers debated and passed the hikes in Parliament.

Most of the students were herded by riot police into contained areas, but many groups broke free and ran through some of the city’s shopping areas.

Some of the protesters chanted “Off with their heads!” and smashed one of the royal couple’s clear car windows. The car was also splashed with white paint. Charles and Camilla were pictured visibly shaken but unharmed.

The security breach is embarrassing for police and the royal household in the run-up to Prince William’s wedding on April 29, raising questions about whether security needs to be boosted.

Neither Buckingham Palace nor the police will comment on royal security procedures for the wedding, or how many police officers regularly accompany royal figures.

Experts cited numerous failings in planning and coordinating Thursday’s royal outing, warning that the prince was lucky to have escaped unharmed.

Police should have been liaising with the royal protection squad to ensure they never came near the protests — and most certainly not in a vintage Rolls Royce, said Alex Bomberg, a former aide to the royal family and chief executive of a close protection security firm.

The car reportedly only had reinforced windows and was not bullet proof.

Security analyst and former police officer Charles Shoebridge called the attack one of “the most serious security breaches of the past decade”.

“Some of the demonstrators yesterday were carrying petrol, specifically to use in arson attacks. If the can of paint had been a can of petrol, it would have been very different,” he said.

Police said 34 protesters were arrested but would not say whether any of the arrests were linked to the royal attack.