Letter: Millennial warnings

Sir: I am horrified that the authorities, rather than deterring people from coming to the millennium celebrations in London, seem to be doing their best to invite as many thousands of revellers as they can to descend upon the capital. The potential for a massive human tragedy is enormous

It will be dark, and there will be tens of thousands of people thronging the streets and pavements. Remember Heysel? Remember Hillsborough? The very thought of a similar situation in London on Friday night fills me with dread. I will avoid London like the plague.

The Government should have taken every step to arrange small millennium events around the country in order to disperse people as much as possible, but instead it has organised a "river of fire", thereby ensuring that a few hundred thousand people all congregate right next to the Thames, which is in full spate after all the recent rain.

Have people, have the authorities, really thought this through?

MICHAEL D MITCHELL

Flackwell Heath, Buckinghamshire