On one of the busiest days of the year for Oxford Street, panic broke out as a result of numerous reports of shots being fired at Oxford Circus Tube station at around 16:38 on Black Friday. While there was no evidence of gun fire, a woman sustained a minor injury leaving the station. The British Transport Police said it believed there had been an altercation between two men on the platform before the panic. Police responded to the incident as potentially terrorism-related, with an armed response team on the scene less than a minute after the first call.

The UK has been unnerved by four terror attacks in 2017, despite the fact that the UK has quite a low death rate in consequence to terrorism. From 2000 to 2017, 126 people have been killed in the UK in terrorist attacks, according to figures from the Global Terrorism Database; this is quite a low statistic compared to other countries across Europe such as France. However, the panic felt from being faced with a terrorism situation has undoubtedly had a significant impact on local communities, causing new precautions and protocols to be put in place among schools and public places.

Eivile Klingaite, a 16 year old girl from Wimbledon, was present during the incident at Oxford Street. She stated ‘you see terror incidents on the news and sympathise with the victims, however you never think that you yourself could be in the situation. People were running and screaming down the street towards me and everyone around me was barricading themselves in shops; I was petrified and totally unprepared. No one knew what was going on.’ The police are definitely taking action against these threats; according to the guardian, the number of people arrested over terrorism-related offences in Britain has risen by 54% to 400. As a consequence to the threat level for international terrorism being raised to severe in the UK, the Met are continuing to work hard in local communities to keep the public safe.

Ciara Cannell - Ursuline High School