I was a Met Police firearms officer. This is what it feels like in the chaos of a terror attack

We don’t yet know the full facts. It’s too early, and nothing good comes from rushing to judgment based on a preliminary coroner’s report or a referral to the watchdog. I don’t intend to speculate on that incident. But I can speak from experience.

I have deployed as an armed officer to terrorist incidents under Operation Plato, though not in Manchester. The similarities are close enough that I know what the officers yesterday would have been feeling.

The stress begins before you arrive. Sometimes you are on top of the incident within minutes, with no time to plan. At other times you travel further and try to piece together scraps of information en route: the number of suspects, their weapons, their appearance, their movements.

More often than not, the information is thin or contradictory. You need good intelligence to make good decisions, but in reality you rarely get it. That frustration adds to the stress.

When you do arrive, the reality is chaos. It is violent, frightening and overwhelming. Training prepares you as best it can, but no exercise truly replicates what it feels like when it is real — real blood on the pavement, real rounds in the gun. It is not like the movies. It is not neat or sequential. Everything happens at once, and the officers’ success depends on how well they manage that chaos.

Within seconds, they may face competing responsibilities. An attacker may be threatening someone’s life at close quarters. To intervene is to risk the safety of others nearby, knowing that a 5.56 round can pass through a body and continue travelling. Every decision is a balance of risks, taken in milliseconds.

This is the essence of armed policing: choosing the least-worst option. There are no good choices, only bad and less bad ones. Officers act in line with their training and instincts, knowing that hesitation could cost lives. And when the suspect appears to be wearing a device, as in Manchester, officers must assume it could be detonated at any moment — even as they confront the threat.

On top of that, stress takes a physical toll. Elevated heart rates distort hearing and perception. Officers are trained to regulate themselves, to think clearly while their bodies fight against them. It is another layer of pressure on an already impossible task.

So what would I say to the public — and to the Jewish community in particular — in the aftermath of Manchester? I have heard doubts voiced about the protection in place. My message is this: armed officers are highly trained, highly motivated, and absolutely capable of protecting you. They face terrifying choices in the space of a heartbeat. But they are committed to standing between you and those who would do you harm.

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