British security services are monitoring thousands of would-be terrorists or those perceived as a threat to Britain’s security, new information has suggested.
The Telegraph reports that the “thousands” number, given by Mayor Boris Johnson during an interview, suggested that the threat posed by Islamic State sympathisers on British streets is much higher than originally assumed.
Mr Johnson said: “In London we’re very very vigilant and very very concerned. Every day – as you saw recently, we had to raise the threat level – every day the security services are involved in thousands of operations.
“There are probably in the low thousands of people that we are monitoring in London.”
Mr Johnson then went on to tell the Telegraph about Britons fighting for ISIS: “London has a particular concern, because probably of the five or six hundred that are out there, we think a third, maybe more – maybe half – come from the London area.
“If and when they come back, we have a real job to deal with them.”
UK security services will no doubt be stretched by the mass monitoring of potential terrorists or ISIS sympathisers, and the ability to foil plans may, as a result, become hindered.
Last week police arrested five men in London who were believed to be planning imminent attacks on Britain. It has been suggested that they were looking to behead people en masse on London’s streets.
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