Isil could use drones for attacks inside UK

ISIL jihadists could use readily available commercial drones to carry out a terrorist attack inside the UK, a former security minister has warned.

Admiral Lord West of Spithead said tighter safeguards were needed for the unmanned aircraft and suggested that they be fitted with safety switches to stop them entering vulnerable areas.

The former First Sea Lord spoke as ministers said Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) was loading the remote control aircrafts with explosives in the Middle East.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns, a foreign minister, said the Government had intelligence that the militants have “used small, commercially available unmanned aerial vehicles in Syria and Iraq to extend their surveil- lance capability, produce propaganda material and carry small improvised explosive devices”.

Adml Lord West said that if the group was using drones in its heartlands, it was likely to use them in the West.

He said: “I don’t think our control of drones is as tight as it should be. If they are using them there, then they are probably even easier to use them here because you can get them so much easier.

“You can pop into any store and buy them. Therefore I am very concerned.”

Adml Lord West said he had asked the Government to restrict the areas drones can fly into, adding: “I think that should be mandatory.”

The Department for Transport is talking to manufacturers about the use of “geo-fencing” technology, while ministers are also examining a drone registration scheme.