London commuters are beginning to carry gas masks and even chemical protection suits on the underground railway as fears grow that a terror attack might follow a war with Iraq. Some Britons are even abandoning the capital altogether for the safety of country retreats.The British Government launched a new anti-terrorism website on Wednesday warning there was a risk extremists would use military action against Iraq to carry out terror attacks and encouraging people to stock up on tinned food and batteries.But, following regular warnings from Prime Minister Tony Blair that groups such as Al-Qaeda would try to attack Britain, some Britons are taking more drastic action.“We know at least 1,000 people are travelling with respirators every day on the Tube (the London Underground),” said Edward Klinger, managing director of Ozonelink, a London-based firm which supplies gas masks and protective suits to civilians.Unlike the large rubber masks handed out during World War II, these masks can be carried discreetly, he told Reuters.More than 60,000 people, mainly commuters and office workers but also worried parents, have contacted the firm for advice so far this year, their fears exacerbated by the discovery of the deadly toxin ricin in a London flat in January, Klinger said.Blair and his ministers have been accused of sending outmixed messages by talking up the terror threat while doing little to prepare people for an attack.
