A huge recruitment campaign is being launched to find up to 10,000 private security guards to police the London 2012 Olympic Games, according to The Times.

The report in today’s Times says that the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) is launching Bridging the Gap to find the massive shortfall in frontline security, which will also need to recruit a further 10,000 to protect other local celebrations.

Chris Allison, an assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police and the national Olympic security co-ordinator, told The Times: “There is not enough private security to deal with LOCOG demands… We don’t want to secure 34 venues and then for one of the other parallel venues to become a terrorist target.”