The people of Scotland must not allow terrorism to triumph and should go about their business as usual, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.
Following confirmation that the UK's terror threat level has been raised to critical, the FM chaired another meeting of its Resilience Committee meeting in the early hours of this morning.
The meeting was attended by the Deputy First Minister, the Justice Secretary, the Lord Advocate and senior officers from Police Scotland.
Ministers were briefed by Police Scotland about the practical implications for Scotland of the heightened security status for coming major events such the Scottish Cup Final.
The First Minister said: "While raising the UK terror threat level to critical has been judged a necessary response to the despicable attack in Manchester, we must not allow terrorism to triumph.
"I urge the people of Scotland to be vigilant but not alarmed and, as far as possible, to go about their business as usual.
"Police Scotland have already visibly increased their presence in locations such as transport hubs and city centres as a precaution.
"Security arrangements for upcoming public events, including this weekend's Scottish Cup Final, are being thoroughly reviewed and the public should anticipate additional safety measures such as full body and bag searches.
"Our emergency services prepare extensively for situations such as this, and those well-rehearsed plans are now being put into practice."
The First Minister added: "Anyone who was in Manchester and witnessed the terror attack or its immediate aftermath will undoubtedly be feeling stressed or upset.
"Anyone with concerns about themselves or their children should contact their GP for support or NHS 24 if their GP surgery is closed."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel