Minister warns of terror strikes when UK is ‘not on the ball’

Published on 19/10/2012 00:28

Terrorists who want to harm the UK are “waiting for the moment when we take our eye off the ball”, the security minister has said.

The emergency services need to be better prepared to tackle a lone gunman on the streets of Britain and the UK is facing an increasing risk of terrorism from the situation in Mali, James Brokenshire said.

He added: “A collective failure to act might well manifest in attacks closer to home. Those who want to do us harm are waiting for the moment when we take our eye off the ball.

“The threat remains very real. But that does not mean we cannot stay ahead of it.”

Home Secretary Theresa May has asked the police and other emergency services “to make further improvements to the joint response”, he added.

Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) in London, Mr Brokenshire said: “Staying ahead of the threat means ensuring our emergency response is capable of dealing with the threat in whatever form it takes.

“Changing tactics have allowed terrorists to “achieve a devastating effect using relatively unsophisticated means.

“The experiences in Toulouse and in Norway demonstrate the impact that a lone individual can have if sufficiently motivated, while the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai were characterised by an ongoing firearms and explosives attack, and by hostage-taking. So we are improving the way the emergency services work together in response to a major incident.”

Lone individuals sympathetic to al-Qaeda’s cause were ­believed to have been one of the major concerns in the run-up to the Olympic Games.

Mohamed Merah, who said he had links to al-Qaeda, killed seven people near Toulouse in March, while Anders Breivik went on the rampage in Norway, killing 69 people in July last year.