‘Lone wolf’ terror fear at UK’s Christmas markets
Diehard IS fighters ‘urge attacks across Europe’
COUNTER-TERRORISM officers are on high alert for a “lone-wolf attack” against Christmas shoppers and worshippers.
Police and MI5 fear Islamic State supporters could be triggered into launching a knife or vehicle assault by ISIS masterminds via websites.
In the wake of Tuesday’s Strasbourg outrage, police fear copycat attacks across Europe.
Britain is high on the terrorist target list, with more than 600 live MI5 investigations into possible plots and over 3,000 extremists.
The threat of international terrorism across Britain is “severe”, meaning an attack is “highly likely” and armed police are patrolling Christmas markets around the country.
Lone wolf attackers are most feared as they do little preparation, so are harder to detect.
Militarily, IS forces are still being hammered by US-led Kurdish forces from the Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria and by police and army in neighbouring Iraq.
But it is feared plotters, among up to 3,000 diehards hiding in tunnels and bunkers, are persuading “terror messengers” to export calls to arms to jihadis in Europe.
Messengers make calls or deliver instructions from the surviving IS leadership to agents in places such as Turkey.
A senior counterterror source said: “The hard core of IS terrorists holed up in Syria and Iraq are basically in survival mode.
“While they hold a tiny percentage of ground compared to a year ago, they are still extremely dangerous. They are able to export their violent messages, urging supporters to launch attacks across Europe through any number of extremist websites. This is when they are at their most dangerous, cornered and desperate.
“They are trying everything to persuade people to launch any kind of attack, as long as it gets attention. “Christmas public gatherings are an obvious target and everyone has to be on their guard.”
Police and MI5 have stepped up their monitoring of hired cars and vans after the vehicle-led assaults in Europe.
Colonel Richard Kemp, a former adviser on terrorism to the Government, said: “This time of year is the highest at-risk period – large crowds enjoying themselves, perhaps not paying as much attention and the Christian aspect.”
This is the highest at-risk period, with large crowds enjoying themselves COLONEL RICHARD KEMP ON INCREASED TERROR THREAT