Security staff at the Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham may have acted ?overzealously? when they stopped people from taking photographs outside the building amid terrorism fears, admits a spokeswoman.
Like many UK shopping centres, the Bullring operates restrictions on taking pictures from inside the shopping mall for security reasons. This is designed to prevent, for example, people recording the location of CCTV security cameras.
However, it appears that some security staff misunderstood the Bullring?s policy on photographs, following a briefing about the possibility of a potential terrorist attack on the city.
Bosses are now investigating several incidents in which sightseers were stopped from taking pictures outside the Bullring building.
Sightseer Janet Cunningham told the Birmingham Evening Mail newspaper that her friends were stopped during a city-centre tour. ?She [the security officer] said it was for security reasons and that it was private property,? said Janet. ?We questioned her and she called for back-up. Then one of her colleagues said it was for architectural reasons ? so that we didn?t steal the design.?
The Bullring?s marketing controller Georgina Kelly told AP: ?I believe that some of the team may have been overzealous in people taking pictures so we are having a look to see.?
For more on this story see next week?s AP, in shops on Tuesday 6 September.
