UK (Washington Insider Magazine) -On Monday, November 15, the UK set its terror threat level as “severe” following a fatal explosion on Sunday in Liverpool that is being labelled a “terrorist incident”.
“Severe” is the second-highest level on the British terror threat level.
The UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said the step had been taken because the attack was the second occurrence in just one month. The previous event Patel was referring to was the murder of Conservative MP David Amess on October 15, which police said had religious and ideological motivations.
It currently appears that the only fatality from the explosion outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital was the man with the detonator. He was sitting in the back of a taxi when the driver dove from the car and locked him, sustaining injuries in the process which he has since recovered from. Three other men have been arrested in connection with the blast.
The police claim to have found “significant items” when searching a house on Rutland Avenue in Liverpool afterwards and also claim to be confident of the identity of the passenger, although they are not able to confirm it yet.
Head of Counter Terror Policing North West Russ Jackson said “At this location, significant items have been found and further searches will be necessary today and potentially into the coming days.”
IT is believed the explosion was set off using a homemade improvised explosive divide (IED) although it’s possible that just the detonator exploded whilst the main combustion utility malfunctioned.
A terror attack is “highly likely” according to the new threat level that’s been set. The previous “substantial” terror threat level meant that an attack was “likely”.
The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC), which made the decision to raise the threat level is based in London at MI5’s headquarters and primarily consists of counter-terror experts from security agencies, the police and the government.
