UK AUTHORITIES FOIL PLOT TO ASSASSINATE PM THERESA MAY

LONDON: British authorities have foiled a terrorist plot by two Muslim men to assassinate Prime Minister Theresa May, according to a media report on Wednesday.

Police believe the plan was to launch some sort of improvised explosive device at Downing Street, where the prime minister’s residence is located, and attack and kill the premier in the ensuing chaos, Sky News quoted its sources as saying.

Two men – Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman, 20, from north London and Mohammed Aqib Imran, 21, from south-east Birmingham – were arrested last week by armed police and charged with “preparing acts of terrorism”. They will appear at the Westminster Magistrates Court on terror charges.

Sky News reported this was the latest in a number of terror plots that police and the MI5 intelligence service foiled this year. The head of MI5, Andrew Parker, briefed cabinet ministers on the latest plot because of the “seriousness of what they believed they have uncovered”.

“It is in essence an extreme Islamist suicide plot against Downing Street…This is something which has been pursued over several weeks at least by Scotland Yard, MI5 and West Midlands Police,” the report said.

MI5 said on Tuesday it had prevented nine terror attacks in the UK in the past year.

Downing Street is well-protected with fortified gates and armed police officers. Better security measures were introduced in the 1970s and the 1980s.