Security stepped up for Obama's UK visit, Queen's Ireland trip

London, May 4 (ANI): The security for President Barack Obama's visit to the UK and the Queen's Ireland trip has been beefed up following Osama bin Laden's death.

The Queen's armour-plated car will have a mile-long police escort when she visits Dublin, Cork and Kildare on May 17, and army snipers will stand guard on every bridge her Rolls-Royce passes beneath.

"We are taking no chances," the Daily Star quoted a senior Garda source as saying.

"The visit to Ireland provides a perfect opportunity for al-Qaida to work together with rogue republican terrorists who want to have the Queen killed or seriously injured and return Northern Ireland back to the violence which it has left behind," the source said.

Security for President Obama's first state visit to the UK will be tighter than ever.

He and wife Michelle, 47, will arrive in London on May 24 protected by The Beast, an armoured limo which can be turned into a panic room and resist bullets, chemical weapons and even a missile strike.

The 182,000 pounds Cadillac also comes with a teargas cannon, night-vision camera and oxygen tanks.

The President's White House medical unit, complete with a supply of his AB-type blood for emergency transfusions, will be on standby.

"Though bin Laden is dead, al-Qaida is not. The terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge him and we must, and will, remain vigilant and resolute," CIA director Leon Panetta stated. (ANI)