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Counter-terrorism Police offer help to Norfolk churches 

Following the recent terrorist attacks on two mosques in New Zealand, counter-terrorism Police in East Anglia have offered to provide advice and guidance to churches and other places of worship across the region.

A Counter Terrorism Security Advisor working for the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit, based at Norfolk Police HQ in Wymondham, told Network Norfolk: “Given the recent terrorist attack in New Zealand and the impact this has had across all our communities, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves to churches across Norfolk and Suffolk. We provide protective security advice and guidance to various sites and organisations across the Eastern region.
 
“Understandably, crowded places, sites and organisations may be feeling concerned at the moment, however I would like to take this opportunity to reassure you that there is no intelligence to suggest that such sites are a target.”
 
“We would like to take this opportunity to engage with churches across Norfolk and Suffolk to offer them ACT Awareness (Action Counters Terrorism) training. This is a national scheme that has been produced to help with raising awareness, understanding and mitigating against the current terrorist threat. It is an interactive, variable length, session delivered by a CT professional.
 
“Topics include current terrorist threat, identifying and responding to suspicious activity, and what to do during an attack/bomb threat. We would however require minimum attendance numbers of 20 should you require a presentation and an appropriate facility with which to host,” said the advisor.
 
If you are unable to guarantee attendances, there is an eLearning variant of the presentation that can be completed online. This can be completed in around 40 minutes and can be found here. 
 
Details of the Run, Hide, Tell guidance can be found here.
 
Alternatively you can contact the counter terrorism unit at email: ctsa@norfolk.pnn.police.uk
 
Following the New Zealand attacks, National Policing Lead for Counter Terrorism, Neil Basu said: “We stand together with all our communities and partners here in the UK and overseas, and will continue to work with them to counter the threat no matter where it comes from. Together with our intelligence partners we continually monitor the varied threats we face, including to and around places of worship and specific communities across the country, to ensure we have the most appropriate protective security measures in place to keep people safe.
 
"We have stepped up reassurance patrols around mosques and increasing engagement with communities of all faiths, giving advice on how people and places can protect themselves.”
 
The threat to the United Kingdom remains unchanged.
 


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