There was an attempted armed robbery at Blackhorse Road underground station yesterday. Needless to say this was in broad daylight on a Saturday, at about a quarter past one. Police are looking for at least two armed men.

I was at the station shortly after the police had already got there, but had not yet fully closed it. In an adrenolin and testosterone filled atmosphere, there were more police than anyone ever normally sees round here, strutting around trying to look ready for anything. They had decided to cause maximum inconvenience to the public by taping off huge areas of the pavement so people had to walk in the busy roads (one a dual carriageway) to get to the bus stop necessitated by the temporary closure of the station. No explanation regarding the closure was being given at that point, but there was plenty of bossiness, despite the general co-operativeness of the long-suffering local public. (Blackhorse Road is regularly closed at little notice due to engineering over-runs or security problems). Contradictory advice was provided by different police officers about how people could continue their journey, one officer even saying to me despite the obvious evidence to the contrary the station was still open and could be accessed by its rear entrance.

In contrast to all this, by the evening, when I returned from Central London there was no sign at all that any incident had taken place. I asked the lone member of the station staff then on duty what had happened. He told me about it, and said that the police have taken away cctv pictures, which they are now looking at.

Lots of people had been traveling to all round London through this transport hub at the time of the incident. They may well have seen things before and after the event, but not realized their significance. Nevertheless, information has not yet been made available to the many people who would have been in the area at the time to help identify these people, who got away, nor has the incident yet been reported in the local press.

An unrelated incident in which two people were shot locally did not make the papers for 11 days. A local bookmakers was also robbed twice in three weeks before the public were told. Faced with the boldness of local criminals, failures to issue timely information or seek possible witnesses while their memories are fresh are disappointing.