NY police to teach how to identify suicide bombers

NEW YORK - Police in New York will board city buses and subway trains and teach passengers how to recognise suicide bombers, officials said today in the wake of the deadly blasts blamed on such bombers in London.

New York, hardest hit by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has been spared suicide bomb attacks such as those that plague daily life in Iraq and have frequently shaken Israel.

The bombings of three subways and a bus in London last week, which killed at least 53 people, were Britain's first suicide attacks.

Alerting the public to identify suicide bombers is part of a broader plan to step up warnings on New York's public transportation system of possible terror-related activity, officials said.

The idea of alerting people face-to-face comes after the New York Police Department got a positive public response when a city police officer who was searching a bus the day of the London bombings spoke to commuters about being aware of suspicious activity, said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

"It is kind of unique to be on a bus to be able to do that," Kelly said at a news conference. "In reality, we can't do it on every bus, but I think we are going to use that where we can, where it is reasonable to do it."

New York's 37,000-member police force is already on high alert, working overtime with bomb-sniffing dogs to patrol subways, buses, ferries and prominent buildings, and the warnings about suicide bombers will be added to those efforts, officials said.

"People could be told to look out for bulky clothing in warmer weather, or people repeatedly returning to a package," said Police Department spokesman Paul Browne.

The police commissioner said the city is spending about $1 ($NZ1.50) million a day on overtime pay for police due to the added security concerns since the London bombings.

Democrats, particularly in New York, have criticised the administration of US President George W. Bush over what they see as a lack of funds for security of the nation's mass transit systems.

New York officials also have long argued that security funds should be spent on locations at the greatest risk of attack and noted that rural states such as Wyoming get more money than New York on a per capita basis.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it would be a "dereliction of duty" if the US Congress did not direct funds toward areas at highest risk of attack.

"When you catch a potential terrorist, he doesn't have a map of a cornfield, he has a map of New York City or a building," the mayor said.

New York's regional transit agency acknowledged this week it has been slow to spend more than $600 million budgeted to protect the system against a potential attack, with only $30 million of that money spent since 2002, according to The new York Times.

"The easy way out would be to spend the money quickly, without a thorough analysis of the cost and benefit," Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Peter Kalikow told the Times.

Kalikow said a lack of reliable technologies made it difficult to determine how best to defend the transit network.

"The technology for this kind of stuff is still emerging," he told the newspaper.

- REUTERS