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Wed 5 Apr, 2006 02:08 pm
Quote:French cop walks
into Waterloo shop
... carrying a gun
By Justin Davenport
Crime Correspondent
Shopper watched in amazement as a French policewoman walked into a newsagent's at Waterloo station with a gun strapped to her hip.
The uniformed officer bought a magazine from WH Smith and left, completely unaware that she had come close to sparking a diplomatic incident by carrying the loaded weapon on British soil.
The Home Office was informed of the "breach of protocol" and there was an immidiate apaology from her commander for contravening an international agreement.
One onlooker said:"She had a pistol and police emblazoned on her uniform.
"No one could quite believe it. It's a bit worrying when you start seeing armed French officers wandering around."
An inquiry is under way. The officer is a member of the French immigration police and is allowed to carry firearms in the international section of the station but not in the British one.
A British Transport Police spokesman said she had walked over to the UK side while she was helping a family who had reported their young daughter missing.
The French policewoman spotted the girl at WH Smith ans walked into the terminal to get her and re-unite her with her parents.
The BTP spokesman said the woman had evidently forgotten to remove her pistol before she walked into the domestic section of the station. A spokesman for Eurostar said: "We know what happened, It was ahuman error."
A Home Ofice spokesman said he was satisfied that the matter was being dealt with by the French authorities,
Passengers who embark on Eurostar are checked by French immigration officials as they board the train, a process repeated by Britsih officials when passengers embark in Paris.
The French officers are there to support immigration officials who can challence anyone whose papers do not satisfy them and refuse them permission to board.
The officers have been on patrol at Waterloo International station for at least four years, the first time uniformed foreign police have been stationed in this country.
source: Evening Standard (West End late edition), Wednesday April 05, 2006, page 11
The story is inaccurate in at least one respect that I know of. Uniformed foreign police have been stationed in Britain for much longer than "four years".
This issue first came to light in 1994 when the Channel Tunnel first opened. French police officers are required to carry their weapon at all times when on duty. Not to do so would be a breach of regulations. This caused a problem when some French officers were stationed at Folkestone Eurotunnel (Truck shuttle) terminal. (British officers were reciprocally stationed at Calais Fréthun).
The solution arrived at in the earlier case was, i think, that the French officers carried their guns, but in a sealed holster. The seal could only be broken by permission of the Chief Constable of Kent or an authorised deputy.
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