Counter terrorism police have warned of a “smouldering” threat of a terror attack in the UK, with three late stage plots prevented this year.
The current threat level has been classed as “likely” amid the unrest in Syria following the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad. Since 2017. Some 43 late stage attacks have been foiled since 2017, with some being “goal line saves” according to the UK’s counter terrorism chief.
Vicki Evans, the Senior National Coordinator of Counter Terrorism Policing, said: “History tells us that any instability creates space for extreme violence and acts of terror. You would expect me to be rightly concerned that we could have a void that’s growing and could and may create that in those spaces.”
Ms Evans added that, although ISIS is not the force it once was, similar groups take advantage of chaotic situations and strengthen their support, which can see changes to threat levels.
Another factor she raised is the increased fascination with violent and harmful content, which has become more of a common feature in police case loads.
The Mirror reported that horrific material, including violence, “extreme pornography” and offensive content, sometimes in addition to terrorism content, has been accessed by children as young as 10.
Such material is flagged to them through police investigations or referrals from Prevent, part of the government’s overall counter terrorism strategy. Digital forensics have found that almost all investigations involve thousands upon thousands of downloads.
She said: “We’re seeing search histories that contain violence, misogyny, extreme pornography, racism, fascination with mass violence, school massacres. Sometimes that’s coupled with terrorist material and sometimes it’s not.
“But it’s a pick and mix of horror – horrific content and it is there and evident and prevalent. I would not wish those histories that we see on anyone and would not want to see them in the histories of loved ones and family members. These grotesque fascinations with violence and harmful abuse we’re seeing are increasingly common, we almost see individuals shopping between different ideologies before settling on one and sometimes never settling on one.
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“When they don’t settle, what’s certain is they are still being impacted by that harmful content we’re seeing. It’s unfortunate we’re seeing this a lot in young people…and that is hugely worrying… and it’s a global concern.
“The complexity of our work is like never before. We’re seeing an increasing number of individual cases that are increasingly challenging.”
She added that officers have encountered some “deep, dark hotspots” where the activities of people and groups cannot be left unattended. However, these threats from a digital landscape do not overshadow the threat of “self-initiated terrorists” not associated with one specific group, which “absolutely remains”.
The terror threat in the UK has remained since 2017, when a series of attacks hit the country. Ms Evans warned that counter terrorism officers would strike in response to the actions of any terror group, including HTS, the rebel group which recently toppled Assad in Syria. State threats have also increased since 2022.
She added: “They are inspired by what they see or hear or sometimes just by the material they see online. They can be inspired to attack in low sophistication ways which makes them very hard to detect.
“State threat work has increased for or five fold and state threat work is now around 20 percent of our casework.”
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