Missiles may be placed at residential flats for Olympics

Britain’s military has told residents of an upscale apartment development near the Olympic Park in east London it is installing a missile battery on top of a tower within their housing complex to defend the 2012 Games this summer.

The site is one of a number around the capital the army is considering as bases for surface-to-air missiles to protect the London games from an aerial attack, the Ministry of Defence said.

It is the first time such missiles have been deployed in London since the end of World War Two, shocking some residents at the Bow Quarter housing development, sited in a converted red-brick Victorian match factory.

“There was no consultation, no one knocked on the door,” said Brian Whelan, a 28-year-old journalist. “You just wake up one morning, there’s a leaflet telling you they are going to put missiles on the roof.

“The general tone of it all was ‘Great news, aren’t we lucky’, but that’s not normal, it’s not something people should have put on them.”

Whelan said the leaflet poses a series of questions residents might ask, such as: “Will this make me a target for terrorists? But the answer on it is that we will be safer with it here.

“From the few people I’ve spoken to, and the security we have here, they’re not happy about it.

“Even if it was going to be forced through you would think they would hold a meeting and get rid of people’s fears.”

The measure was excessive and had upset his girlfriend, he said.

“I can’t imagine the circumstances that would require you to fire missiles over a highly populated area.”

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond first announced the plans in November, saying Britain would follow the precedent set by previous Olympics such as the Beijing games in 2008 where surface to air missiles were stationed a kilometre south of its showpiece stadiums.

The defence ministry said in a leaflet sent to occupants over the weekend it had chosen the former water tower in the Bow Quarter complex because it offered “an excellent view of the surrounding area and the entire sky above the Olympic Park.”

The tower was in fact “the only suitable site in this area for the HVM (High Velocity Missile) system,” it added.

The rooftop missile battery is one of a number of extraordinary measures Londoners can expect during the high-profile sporting festival, including restrictions on road lanes for Olympic use and a security bill of more than £1 billion.

Around 700 people living at the building in Bow — about 3.2km from London’s Olympic Stadium — have been contacted and warned that the weapons and about 10 troops are likely to be based at the site for around two months.

Troops plan to conduct tests next week at the building to determine if the high velocity surface-to-air missiles will be stationed on a water tower attached to the site’s roof.

Britain has previously confirmed that up to 13,500 troops are being deployed on land, at sea and in the air to help protect the Olympics alongside police and security guards. Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has said Typhoon fighter jets, helicopters, two warships and bomb disposal experts will also be on duty as part of the security operation.

The leaflet sent to residents insisted there would be no hazard to those living in the building.

It said the missile system would be “only authorised for active use following specific orders from the highest levels of government in response to a confirmed and extreme security threat”.