British police are preparing for potential ISIS attacks in the UK that a top counterterrorism officer fears could be “enormous and spectacular.”
Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, said ISIS has advanced from a "narrow focus on police and military as symbols of the state, to something much broader,"
CNN reported. "You see a terrorist group that has big ambitions for enormous and spectacular attacks, not just the types that we've seen foiled to date."
He made the comments during a weekly briefing Monday and later told CNN that the threat is general and not a specific known terrorist plot.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the downing of Metrojet Flight 9268 over Sinai in October, which killed 224 people. In November, an ISIS cell killed 130 people during a massacre at a concert hall, restaurants, and a sports stadium in Paris.
ISIS is recruiting increasing numbers of people with mental illnesses,
along with women and teens, The Guardian reported.
The number of terrorism-related arrests in England, Wales, and Scotland
reached a record of 339 in 2015, the BBC reported. Security and intelligence chiefs have placed the UK’s terrorism threat level at "severe," meaning an attack is “highly likely.”
Officials will use Twitter and other social media outlets to spread critical information and
tell the public how to respond, The Independent reported.
The last major terror attack on UK soil was a series of bomb attacks on public transport in 2005 that killed 56 people and injured 700.
News of the threat sparked mixed reactions on Twitter.
Related Stories:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.