Terror strike plans are revealed

Final plans are being drawn up to protect London in the event of an attack by terrorists.

The capital's top emergency planners are on stand-by following fresh warning from Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens that "we are in real danger" of an outrage.

It follows confirmation that security services foiled a poison gas plot that could have been targeted against Tube travellers. Details obtained by the Evening Standard reveal the key people who would be in charge of a response to an attack.

The Cabinet committee Cobra and the Gold committee at Scotland Yard would be responsible for co-ordinating the response.

Cobra will see the most important figures in Government gather in a bunker under Whitehall within minutes of a terror strike.

But the real decisions that affect Londoners would be made by the Scotland Yard Gold committee, sitting in an emergency room below the Met's headquarters.

Its members would decide where to evacuate, give orders to police commanders who would carry out the decisions, and work out what extra resources would be needed.

Working alongside it, and taking orders from it, would sit the London Resilience Committee - which draws together every other organisation needed in the event of an emergency.

It would work out how to coordinate these different bodies and tell health and transport chiefs exactly what to do.

Face-to-face meetings are considered the best way to handle an emergency, especially as phone systems may stop working and services' radio networks are not compatible. The Resilience members include one of the chief executives of London's 33 boroughs, who would take charge of every borough's emergency operation.

The borough chiefs are on a rota system, where one is never more than two hours from Scotland Yard in case the committee is convened.

Hospital trust bosses run a similar system. Tube security chief Spencer MacManus would be on the Resilience committee, along with representatives of Network Rail and

London Ambulance Service would send a representative, while its own emergency chief Philip Selwood would take control of the paramedics' response from the service's Waterloo headquarters.

The Gold and Resilience committees will sit round the clock, while Cobra will be convened as needed over decisions such as troop deployment and declaring a state of emergency.