LONDON, Oct. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Scotland Yard needed more resources to tackle the terrorist threat to London, one of its senior officers said on Saturday.

    "We need more officers to join with their colleagues who are already working hard to try and make London safer in the light of what appears to be an increased threat, not only in London but across the world," Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick told BBC radio Five Live.

    "We need additional resources to provide more resilience around our ability to both capture intelligence about potential bombings in the future, but also to increase our resilience around our ability to investigate this sort of offense," he said.

    Along with planned changes to terror legislation, it would "make London a far safer place," Paddick added.

    Proposals in British government's Terrorism Bill included extending pre-charge detention from 14 days to three months.

    "The government is helping us by changes in legislation and we hope to put a convincing case to government for additional resources," Paddick said.

    Al-Qaida had claimed responsibility for the July 7 suicide bombings in London, in which 52 people were killed.

    The first payments had been made to victims of the bombings, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority said earlier this week.

    So far 14 payments had been given to bereaved relatives and another eight to injured survivors, more than 400,000 pounds (780,000 US dollars) in total. Enditem