Britain puts troops on standby for Olympics

Britain has been forced to make more last-minute changes to the London Olympics, putting 2,000 extra troops on standby and shortening the opening ceremony to avoid transport problems.

But with just over a week to go until the Games begin there was at least one bright spot as forecasters said the sun was set to shine on the Games after Britain’s wettest summer in 100 years.

The run-up to the Games, which open on July 27, has been marred by a security fiasco sparked when private contractor G4S said it could not fulfil its contract to supply 10,500 security guards.

The government has already announced that it will deploy 3,500 extra troops to plug the gap, taking the total military personnel at the Games to 17,000 but yesterday announced that it had even more on standby.

“Contingency plans are being drawn up for 2,000 more soldiers,” sports minister Hugh Robertson told a press conference.

He said the government would “not pay a penny” more and that G4S would foot the bill for any further deployment.

Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking during a trip to Afghanistan to visit British troops battling Taliban militants, hailed the military for stepping in.

“I salute and applaud what the military have done to step in and I think they’re doing an excellent job. If there are further steps we have to take of course we will take them,” he told ITN television.

G4S’s embattled boss Nick Buckles admitted during a grilling by lawmakers on Tuesday that the affair was a “humiliating shambles” and that he could not now guarantee the number of guards that the company could provide.

Britain currently has 17,000 military personnel lined up to perform security duties at the Games — almost double the 9,500 troops that it has in Afghanistan. Transport in congested London has been another worry ahead of the Olympics. The organisers of the Games said hey had scrapped part of the €34 million opening ceremony to ensure it finishes in time for people to catch subways and buses home.

The show is designed to transform the stadium into a rural British idyll, complete with cows, sheep and synthetic clouds to provide traditional British rain — in the unlikely event that the weather does not provide it.

One billion people around the globe are expected to watch the ceremony, directed by “Slumdog Millionaire” filmmaker Danny Boyle.