LONDON: Britain raised its terrorism threat level to ‘severe’ — the second highest level — on Friday, days before London hosts major meetings on how to deal with militancy in Afghanistan and Yemen.
The decision to raise the level from ‘substantial’ means security services now consider an attack in Britain, a key US ally, to be “highly likely” but the government said it had no information to suggest an attack was imminent.
Britain gave no reason for the move by its Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) which comes as Britain and other countries step up precautions in the wake of the failed Christmas Day attack on an airliner in Detroit.
Raising the threat level is expected to lead to tighter security at airports and public buildings.
“JTAC keeps the threat level under constant review and makes its judgments based on a broad range of factors, including the intent and capabilities of international terrorist groups in the UK and overseas,” Home Secretary (interior minister) Alan Johnson said in a statement.
“The fact that we’ve moved to another threat level means we put more resources in, we heighten the state of vigilance. It shouldn’t be thought to be linked to Detroit or anywhere else for that matter,” he told the BBC.
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