MICHAEL HOWIE

POLICE hit squads will be posted alongside major roads and at railway stations across Scotland to intercept anarchists planning to cause havoc during the G8 summit, The Scotsman has learned.

Militants are believed to have targeted the Forth Road Bridge and the A9 between Glasgow and Perth for possible disruption. With that in mind, police are drawing up a map of strategic points where the interceptor squads will be lying in wait.

Parts of the country are already facing serious road and rail disruption due to the massive security surrounding the summit at Gleneagles, Perthshire, in July, and police say setting up the interceptor squads is necessary to safeguard the transport network from even more chaos as a result of impromptu roadblocks.

Insiders say police and rail chiefs have agreed plans to shut any station between Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Perth to disrupt the movement of protesters who they believe are intent on causing trouble.

A police source said: "There will be teams of officers strategically placed around the country, ready to move in if required. They will be placed at points where they can reach troublemakers as quickly as possible.

"We don't know if things are going to go wrong, but we have to be ready for any eventuality.

"We're not trying to stop anybody from protesting, unless we receive specific intelligence that they are going to cause trouble. For example, if they are carrying equipment that can be used to block roads - for example, drainpipes or handcuffs - we need to try and stop that."

The source said people found carrying offensive weapons would be arrested. In less clear-cut cases, in which, for example, a car was found with a boxful of handcuffs, decisions on whether to detain the occupants or confiscate the equipment would depend on the strength of the intelligence. "It will depend on the individual circumstances," the source said.

Some 12,000 police officers in Scotland will be either directly involved or on standby for the visit of George Bush, the US president, Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, and the other G8 heads of government. Thousands more police in England will be ready to move north if major trouble flares.

The use of police interceptor squads was condemned by a number of protesters, who described them as "provocative" and an attempt to intimidate those planning to attend demonstrations.

Gill Hubbard, a spokeswoman for G8 Alternatives, said: "This is an absolute and serious breach of our right to protest.

"It is also part of the propaganda war, which focuses public attention on the police and detracts from what we are doing, which is a peaceful protest aimed at ending poverty, getting the truth about the Iraq war and looking seriously at climate change."