Police have thwarted five terror attacks in three months

Police have thwarted five terror attacks in three months

Police have thwarted five terror attacks in the last three months, some of which were minutes from being carried out, it was revealed today.

Britain has experienced a year of repeated atrocities, starting with Westminster Bridge, before the Manchester suicide bombing, the knife attacks on London Bridge and the van ramming in Finsbury Park.

But Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick revealed it could have been much worse, with five other attacks disrupted by police. 

Cressida Dick revealed police have thwarted five terror attacks in the last three months

She told LBC radio: 'We have thwarted a very large number of plots over the last few years. 

'Just in the last few weeks, five, and overall its well into the teens in the last couple years, where we know people were intent on attack and that's been stopped.'

She later clarified that five attacks had been stopped in the last 'three to four months'.

She said some of them were 'very close to attacks, very close', some of them just 'minutes away'.

She added: 'In addition, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of arrests of people who are radicalised, and are either spreading hatred or supporting terrorism, or want to carry out a terrorist attack.

'We have had a huge number of successful operations, together with the intelligence agencies and we work very closely with them and with colleagues overseas.' 

Britain was rocked by a terror attack on Parliament in March, which killed five people

Then 22 people - including children - were slaughtered by a suicide bomber in Manchester

Speaking during a radio phone-in, she told Londoners a government review will examine how to tackle the extremism behind the attacks.

She added: 'I've worked for the last 17 years in terrorism trying to fight violent extremism in all its forms and it comes in many forms, as we saw in the Finsbury Park attack, we do see different forms of terrorism.

'We are undoubtedly seeing recently examples of people who've carried out attacks or who are violent extremists who are home-grown or who may have travelled or been influenced by someone overseas but who are living in our communities and that's a problem for all of us.'

She said the anti-terror hotline is getting more information than ever before from the Muslim community.

'But we clearly need a lot more, because what has happened in the last few months alone is horrific,' she added. 

She urged schools and other authorities to pass on any information on suspicious individuals to police. 

Eight were killed by three marauding attackers on London Bridge and in Borough Market

A man was killed when an attacker drove a hired van into a crowd near Finsbury Park Mosque

Five people, including police officer Keith Palmer, died in March after extremist Khalid Massood drove a car along the pavements of Westminster Bridge, before running into the grounds of Parliament with a knife.

In May, suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a home-made device in a lobby of a Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, slaughtering 22 people.

Eight people were murdered by three jihadis who drove a van across London Bridge before attacking people with knives in Borough Market.

A man from south Wales then drove a van into a crowd near Finsbury Park Mosque last month, killing one. 

Ms Dick's comments come after warnings that terrorists have singled out a England vs Scotland women's foo tball match due to take place in the Netherlands next Wednesday as a possible target.

The army was drafted in to protect famous landmarks following the Manchester attacks

As terror group ISIS loses its grip on areas it once controlled in Syria and Iraq, it is urging followers abroad to carry out lone wolf or low-tech attacks.

In May this year, around 1,000 heavily-armed soldiers were deployed outside the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and other UK landmarks after warnings a terror attack was 'imminent'. The level was later reduced to 'severe'.

Figures show there were 304 terror-related arrests in the 12 months up to March this year, the highest number since 9/11. 

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