McCANN AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT 6 C. Evacuation plan 19. A plan for evacuation of the expected area of attack was drawn up on 5 March 1988 by Chief Inspector Lopez. It was to be put into effect on Monday or Tuesday (7-8 March). It included arrangements to evacuate and cordon off the area around Ince’s Hall to a radius of 200 m, identified the approach roads to be closed, detailed the necessary traffic diversions and listed the personnel to implement the plan. The plan was not, however, distributed to other officers. D. Joint operations room 20. The operation in Gibraltar to counter the expected terrorist attack was run from a joint operations room in the centre of Gibraltar. In the operations room there were three distinct groups - the army or military group (comprising the SAS and bomb-disposal personnel), a police group and the surveillance or security service group. Each had its own means of communication with personnel on the ground operated from a separate control station. The two principal means of communication in use were, however, the two radio-communication networks known as the surveillance net and the tactical or military net. There was a bomb-disposal net which was not busy and, while the police had a net, it was not considered secure and a telephone appears to have been used for necessary communications with the central police station. E. First sighting of the suspects in Spain on 4 March 1988 21. On 4 March 1988, there was a reported sighting of the ASU in Malaga in Spain. As the Commissioner was not sure how or when they would come to Gibraltar surveillance was mounted. F. Operational briefing on 5 March 1988 22. At midnight between 5 and 6 March 1988, the Commissioner held a briefing which was attended by officers from the Security Services (including from the surveillance team Witnesses H, I, J, K, L, M and N), military personnel (including Soldiers A, B, C, D, E, F and G) and members of the Gibraltar police (Officers P, Q and R and Detective Chief Inspector Ullger, Head of Special Branch, and Detective Constable Viagas). The Commissioner conducted the police aspect of the briefing, the members of the Security Services briefed on the intelligence aspects of the operation, the head of the surveillance team covered the surveillance operation and Soldier E explained the role of the military if they were called on for assistance. It then appears that the briefing split into smaller groups,