Terror attack risk is high says police chief

www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk 11:00 - 17 February 2003

Al Qaida terrorists have a "substantial presence" in the UK, and the risk of attacks remains "high", according to 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.

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, said Sir John.

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 Qaida cells were operating in the UK, he told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost: "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, being questioned at the high-security Paddington Green police station in west London, as Rahaman Alan Hazil Mohammad, who has Venezuelan citizenship, said the BBC. Scotland Yard refused to confirm the suspect's name, but said anti-terrorist officers were liaising with their counterparts in South America and would fly out if necessary.