Don’t get complacent warns Security Minister

The emergency services need to be better prepared to tackle a lone gunman on the streets and the UK is facing an increasing risk of terrorism from the situation in Mali, said James Brokenshire.

“A collective failure to act might well manifest in attacks closer to home,” he added. “Those who want to do us harm are waiting for the moment when we take our eye off the ball. The threat remains very real. But that does not mean we cannot stay ahead of it.”

Home Secretary Theresa May has asked the police and other emergency services “to make further improvements to the joint response”, he added.

Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) in London yesterday, Mr Brokenshire said: “Staying ahead of the threat means ensuring our emergency response is capable of dealing with the threat in whatever form it takes.”

Changing tactics have allowed terrorists to “achieve a devastating effect using relatively unsophisticated means”, he added.

“The experiences in Toulouse and in Norway demonstrate the impact that a lone individual can have if sufficiently motivated, while the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai were characterised by an ongoing firearms and explosives attack, and by hostage-taking. So we are improving the way the emergency services work together in response to a major incident.”

Lone individuals sympathetic to al-Qaida were believed to have been a major concern for the security services and police before the Olympics.

Mohamed Merah, who said he had links with al-Qaida, killed seven people in France’s worst terror attacks in years near Toulouse in March, while Anders Breivik went on the rampage in Norway, killing 69 people in July last year.

In 2008, 166 people were killed in the Mumbai terror attacks.

Marie Staunton, chief executive of international children’s charity Plan UK, said: “The Malian crisis is a global threat which could, unfortunately, persist for years.”