Terrorism and resilience: An historical perspective

A firecracker is set off in Turin during the Champions League Final (June 3rd 2017); the crowd thinks there has been a bomb and panics: one person dies and 1,527 are injured in the stampede. A week later an overheard conversation on an Easyjet flight from Ljubljana to London Stansted is (wrongly) interpreted by the crew as evidence of an imminent terrorist attack; diverted to Cologne for an emergency landing, nine passengers need medical treatment for injuries sustained during evacuation. A car striking pedestrians at an Eid festival celebration in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (June 25th 2017) prompts swift official clarification that this was an accident, not an attack. Local police clearly feel such apprehensions need calming, and quickly.