A drunken Guardsman unintentionally proved the mettle of a police force's anti-terrorist arrangements when he reeled home from a fancy dress party dressed as Osama bin Laden, complete with fake bomb.
The unnamed sergeant was surrounded within minutes by armed police, 15 squad cars and a trio of dog handlers when he zig-zagged on to a public road through Aldershot army barracks. The alert at one of the country's most sensitive potential targets ended in farce when a duty sergeant major had to ring Hampshire police to reassure them that no one else would be leaving the party in similar disguise.
"Soldiers have ways of coping with the things they have to do," said a spokesman for the army in Aldershot. "They face people like that. If you take the mickey out of them, that's a device for coping."
The alarm was triggered when a passerby saw the Coldstream Guardsman on Wednesday, wearing Arab robes, a turban and false beard. His jacket was bulging with candles wrapped in wire and orange paper to look like the equipment of a suicide bomber.
The outfit was a modern take on the fancy dress donned by Guardsmen at an annual party held to commemorate the Coldstream's role at the Battle of Waterloo. Past guests have included many Napoleons and Dukes of Wellington, the rival commanders at the decisive engagement in 1815, but scores of other imaginative characters appear as well.
The army spokesman said the choice of outfit was "perfectly fair" but the sergeant was out of order appearing on a public road. "We might take the time to consider what a suicide bomber is doing walking down the main drag in the army camp all by himself. That's not exactly what these people do but I would rather somebody gave us a call so that we can deal with it rather than leave it."
The sergeant, who has 10 years' service, spent a night in police cells before admitting an offence of public disorder and paying an
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