The terrorism threat level in Britain is now set to ‘severe’, after Monday night’s terror attack in Vienna and the knife attack in Nice. The government confirmed people should not be scared, but indeed stay alert, as a terror threat is ‘highly likely‘.
Terror threat level ‘severe’ in UK
Scotland Yard announced extra police officers will be on duty on London streets in order to maintain security and to keep protection high, after the horrific attacks that took place in Europe in the past weeks. UK government confirmed Londoners should not be alarmed by the police presence but they should indeed stay alert. When the terror threat level is upped from ‘substantial’ to ‘severe’ means that a terror attack is ‘highly likely’ and it is a move to strengthen the tools for dealing with the developing terror threats. Home Secretary Priti Patel confirmed the move was a precautionary measure caused by the terror attacks from last week. She said:
“This is a precautionary measure following the horrific events of the last week in France and last night in Austria and is not based on a specific threat… “As I’ve said before, we face a real and serious threat in the UK from terrorism. I would ask the public to remain vigilant and to report any suspicious activity to the police”.
After four people were killed in the terror attack in Vienna, 14 people have been arrested in Austria and two men were detained near Zurich. Authorities in Austria continue the investigation about the horrific gun attack and have so far announced that the gunman who carried the attack was Kujtim Fejzulai, who had been released from a sentence for his attempt to travel in Syria to join IS, and carried the terror attack alone. Fejzulai had Austrian and Macedonian dual citizenship and was freed although being an Islamic State supporter, after convincing the authorities he had changed his mind about his extremist ideologies.
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