President Obama will cut short visit to Spain in order to travel to Dallas

FOLLOWING an invitation to visit Dallas the scene of the killing of five police officers and the wounding of a further seven, a White House spokesman in Poland where he was attending a NATO summit has announced that the President will cut short his Spanish visit by one day so that he can return to the USA on Sunday July 10.

He will now visit Madrid for discussions then move on to Cadiz to view troops at the Rota Naval Base before returning to the USA.

The President has been in talks with representatives of the Dallas authorities and ordered that flags be flown at half-mast until July 12 as a mark of respect in what is considered to be one of the worst attacks on police officers since 9/11.

This has been a difficult week for American police officers as crowds have protested the shooting of apparently innocent individuals by white police officers in two separate incidents across the country.

 The White House statement said that the President “will continue the work to bring people together to support our police officers and communities, and find common ground by discussing policy ideas for addressing the persistent racial disparities in our criminal justice system.”