Scotland Yard plans to create a back-up squad of firearms officers by training some of its riot police to be equipped with handling guns.
Around 200 officers from the Territorial Support Group (TSG) of the Metropolitan Police are to get firearms training to hike London's armed capacity in the event of a massive terrorist attack.
The officers will not carry weapons in their normal public order duties or while on patrol in London, but will be called on if all the Met's firearms capability is committed to dealing with a coordinated multiple attack, the 'Evening Standard' reported today.
A Met Police spokesperson said, "There is no change in the plan to raise the number of armed officers by about 600. Of those, 400 will be officers in the Force Firearms Unit (SCO19) and the remaining number of officers within other roles across the Met, and one of those options includes officers from the TSG".
The TSG group is being described as a "second wave" of armed officers to be called upon in extreme scenarios.
It will form part of the extra 600 firearms officers announced by Scotland Yard Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe in January after multiple attacks in Paris last November.
The police force is spending around 25 million pounds on equipping the units, which patrol in three-man teams, carrying Sig Sauer semi-automatic carbine rifles and Glock pistols.
The TSG is in the front line of policing violent protests and disorder in the city and carries out routine patrols of crime hotspots in the British capital.
