More troops on standby

Britain yesterday put another 1,200 troops on standby for the London Olympics to plug gaps left when a private company said it could not provide enough security guards

The minister in charge of the Olympics, Jeremy Hunt, said the numbers of staff provided by the beleaguered G4S were rising, and there was currently no need tou00a0deploy more military personnel.

But he added: “As we have said, we must prepare for every contingency.

“We are therefore putting an additional 1,200 troops on standby, reducing their notice to move from seven days to 48 hours..

The government announced last week that it was deploying another 3,500 troops after G4S said it could not fulfill its contract to supply 10,500 private security guards for Olympic venues.

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