'Substantial al-Qaeda presence'

www.itv.com 18.41PM GMT, 16 Feb 2003   Sir John Stevens said there was a "generalised threat" that people operating within London would use whatever means they could find to bring mayhem to the capital

Al-Qaeda terrorists have a "substantial presence" in the UK, and the risk of attacks remains high, says the most senior police officer in England and Wales.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens dismissed suggestions that a hoax was to blame for the terror alert which has seen tanks at Heathrow and heightened security at other airports around the country over the past week.

He said the Government's emergency planning committee, codenamed Cobra, was meeting daily to assess the level of threat and did not believe the danger of terror attacks was over.

He confirmed there were concerns at the highest levels that ground-to-air missile-launchers had been smuggled into the UK and could be used in attempts to shoot down aeroplanes taking off or landing at British airports.

And he said there was a "generalised threat" that people operating within London would use whatever means they could find to bring mayhem to the capital.

While most security work to thwart the terrorists had to go on in secrecy, Sir John said some successes had been achieved, with a total of 72 arrests over several months for terrorist offences.

Asked how many al-Qaeda cells were operating in the UK, he said: "It is very difficult to know, but we do know that there is a substantial presence and we are taking action in relation to those.

"The threat is still high and we have still got an operation at Heathrow. What we do every day is analyse the threat and meet that threat with whatever resources necessary."

Sir John was speaking as it was reported that a man arrested at Gatwick airport on Thursday with a live grenade in his baggage was known to authorities in his native Venezuela and had visited "sensitive countries" within the past few months.

Venezuelan authorities named the man as Rahaman Alan Hazil Mohammad, who has Venezuelan citizenship.

He has been charged with three offences - including possessing an article for the purpose of committing a terrorist act - following his arrest and questioning at Paddington Green high-security police station in west London.

The US Department of State has said Islamic extremist groups are active on Venezuela's Margarita Island, which is home to a large ex-patriate population from the Middle East, many of whom work in the oil industry.

Sir John Stevens said Cobra did not believe that the alert was the result of an al-Qaeda hoax.

He added: "We think the level of the threat was absolute and that is why we took the steps we did. If these steps are needed again, we will take these steps for the safety of the public."

The Metropolitan Police backed Government efforts to make Britain's borders less "porous" to terrorists, he said.