Sadiq Khan’s police security team leave bag full of guns outside family’s home | UK | News
Sadiq Khan is Mayor of London (Image: Getty)
Armed officers guarding London Mayor Sadiq Khan left a bag of firearms outside his home in a serious security breach. It is believed that five officers mistakenly abandoned the bag, which was found on the pavement around 9.30pm on Tuesday.
A pregnant passerby riskively kicked the bag, which contained an MP5 semi-automatic Heckler and Koch carbine, a Glock pistol, stun gun and ammunition, before alerting her partner. Jordan Griffiths told Sun: “My partner saw the bag lying on the curb and got suspicious. He went over and kicked it to see what it was. But the bag was really heavy and wouldn’t move.”
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There were high capacity weapons in the bag (Image: Getty)
Jordan took a look at the bag and picked it up, noting that it was quite heavy. He thought it might be full of coins and decided to bring it inside his house. After opening the bag, he “couldn’t believe his eyes”.
Lying loosely inside the bag were high-capacity weapons, including a gun capable of firing up to 800 rounds per minute, hitting targets with 50,000 volts, as well as a pistol with a capacity of at least 10 rounds.
He added that there was also a Taser and a pocket that “felt like it was full of bullets.”
After calling the police, Jordan was told the bag had been left there by one of Khan’s security guards.
He said police arrived “within minutes” to retrieve the weapons. He continued: “They were really shocked when they arrived. They looked carefully inside the bag and hurriedly took it away.
“I was told that Sadiq Khan was dropped off there by one of the security guards, which made sense as he lived here.”
Sadiq Khan, spokesman for the Mayor of London, told the Express: “This is a very serious incident and has been escalated to the Met’s Professional Standards Directorate. The Met must now take all steps to ensure such an incident never happens again.”
A Met Police spokesman told the Sun: “At around 9.40pm, a member of the public called police after finding a bag containing Met-manufactured firearms and a Taser on a street in South London.
“Within seven minutes of the call, officers arrived at the scene and safely removed the items. “We are urgently reviewing the circumstances of this incident and are aware of the concerns this may cause.
“At this stage, it is believed that the bag was misplaced by officers on duty shortly before the public servant located it. An internal investigation into the situation was immediately launched. While these investigations are ongoing, five officers have been suspended from their frontline duties.”
This comes at a time when pressure is mounting on Sadiq Khan due to the spate of recent criminal incidents in the capital.
Stuart Machin, chief executive of M&S, has written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood after it was reported that groups of youths were carrying out mass store raids, believed to be driven by online trends.
Meanwhile, six teenage girls have been arrested following two separate incidents in Clapham.
