Britain puts 1200 more troops on 48 hour standby

Britain on Thursday put another 1,200 troops on standby for the London Olympics to plug gaps left when a private company said it could not provide enough security guards. The minister in charge of the Olympics, Jeremy Hunt, said the numbers of staff provided by the beleaguered G4S were rising, and there was currently no need to deploy more military personnel. But he added: "As we have said, we must prepare for every contingency. "We are therefore putting an additional 1,200 troops on standby, reducing their notice to move from seven days to 48 hours. They will remain in their current locations but can be called on if we need them during the coming weeks. "We hope that will not be necessary but this is a sensible precaution." The government announced last week that it was deploying another 3,500 troops after G4S said it could not fulfil its contract to supply 10,500 private security guards for Olympic venues. The Games open on July 27.