London- British intelligence officials met over the weekend with their counterparts from the U.S. and about two
dozen other countries to discuss leads in last week”s terrorist attacks, police said Monday.
"We told them what the state of the investigation was" during the private meeting Saturday at Scotland Yard, which included British police and the MI5, Britain”s domestic intelligence service, a Metropolitan Police spokesman was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.
"If they can offer any material assistance, we”re not going to turn it down. In order to help us, they needed to know as much about our investigation as possible," the spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
At least 49 people were killed in the attacks on three subway trains and a bus in central London on Thursday, while 700 were injured, 60 of whom remained in hospitals.
The meeting included senior law enforcement, intelligence and liaison officers from the foreign delegations. They also needed information about security for their own embassies in London, the police spokesman said.
Officials from Europol and Interpol, international police network agencies, also attended the meeting, which lasted several hours and did not result in a public statement.
The spokesman said the large size of the international meeting at Scotland Yard was unusual, but that it was called to quickly inform as many officials as possible without interrupting the British investigation.
The countries involved were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal,Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States, the spokesman said.