Areas outside London deemed vulnerable as security tightened across the continent
Britain’s regional cities are highly vulnerable to Parisstyle terror attacks because they lack the 24/7 armed police cover given to London, the Home Secretary has been warned by police chiefs co-ordinating counterterrorism.
Officers at Scotland Yard have briefed Theresa May that “dedicated armed assets” outside the capital are sparse. An exercise carried out by the National Counter-Terrorism Command aimed at examining how the UK’s police would respond to a simultaneous attack on London, Birmingham and a smaller provincial city has further highlighted the perils. A Scotland Yard source said: “Ask a regional force how long it would take them to respond to a terror attack and watch them squirm.”
The revelation comes in the wake of reports that the mastermind of the Paris terror attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, visited the UK on a false passport. It was reported he may have been in Kent before meeting fellow extremists in London. It was earlier reported that he had photographs of Birmingham landmarks on his phone and had called numbers belonging to Moroccans there.
Seven terror plots in the UK have been foiled in the past six months.
Shadow home secretary Andy Burnham said: “It is essential that all our major cities have 24/7 protection from attack. If this is true, it suggests there are worrying gaps in our ability to respond.”
A Home Office spokesperson said that in recent weeks an extra £34 million ($73.7 million) has been provided to fund more armed police. And it is understood that counterterrorism chiefs are negotiating with May over a plan to assemble four dedicated regional armed units to be available seven days a week, and late into the night. It has also been proposed that “stand-by” teams, ringfenced from other operational duties, be made available to the regions on 15 minutes’ notice.
Vienna police said yesterday that a “friendly” intelligence service had warned European capitals of the possibility of a shooting or bomb attack before New Year, prompting police across the continent to increase security measures.
“Several possible names of potential attackers were mentioned, which were checked, and the investigation based on [these checks] has so far yielded no concrete results,” Vienna police said, some six weeks after 130 people were killed in Islamist bombing and shooting attacks in Paris.
“In the days before Christmas a warning was sent out by a friendly [intelligence] service to numerous European capitals, saying that it could come to an attack involving explosives or a shooting between Christmas and the New Year in crowded spaces.”
The police asked Austrians for their understanding of the need for more security controls.
Extra steps include surveillance in crowded spaces, “especially at events and traffic hubs” as well as intensive identity checks and higher alertness for objects which could carry explosives such as bags or “bicycle frames”, it said.
The leader of Isis (Islamic State) has issued a rare public message of defiance to his “Crusader” enemies, as both the West and Russia claimed significant victories against his forces.
In his first public statement in seven months, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi goaded the widening international coalition against him, saying they did not dare send in ground troops to confront his forces directly.
“Crusaders and Jews don’t dare to come on the ground because they were defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said in a 23-minute long audio message released through an Isis-run internet account. The message appeared to be an effort to rally his followers against the growing number of enemies opposing them. It came as his forces lost control of a key dam in Syria, and as Russia claimed to have decimated an Isis oilsmuggling empire.
Baghdadi insisted his group had