They do this for you, for London, for all of us

We have increased the number of armed officers on our streets to protect our Capital against the terrorism threat. The threat remains at severe.

Every armed officer in the UK has volunteered to carry a firearm and they are paid no more for doing this. These men and women do this as they are committed to their duty, to keep you safe.

If there is a critical incident we tell the public to "Run, Hide, Tell", but these brave officers will run towards danger as it's their job to protect you and confront the threat, whatever it may be.

We are working hard to protect all communities, no matter what the threat. More armed officers out on the streets will mean we can respond more quickly to armed criminality and other serious threats.

This was clearly shown last week, when firearms officers were deployed to Russell Square - they rushed to the scene with limited information - not knowing if it was an act of terrorism.

Within six minutes of the first 999 call from the public our armed officers had arrived and detained the suspect, using the minimum amount of force - no shots were fired.

We are proud of the fact that we continue to meet the challenges of policing a world famous Capital city with a mainly unarmed police service - around 92 per cent. All of our officers who are out on the streets everyday are there to talk to and engage with our communities and that's a really important part of how we keep our city safe.