LONDON
British Prime Minister David Cameron has said the terrorist threat to Britain from the Islamic State is the greatest ever known.
Speaking shortly after Home Secretary Theresa May announced the terrorism threat level had been raised to “severe,” Cameron said IS posed a “greater and deeper threat to our security than we have ever known before.”
“This is not a foreign conflict thousands of miles from home that we can hope to ignore,” the prime minister said. “The ambition to create an extremist caliphate in the heart of Iraq and Syria is a threat to our own security, here in the U.K.
“We have to listen carefully to the intelligence and security officers to do so much every day to keep us safe. We should continue to go about our lives in the normal way."
The new level means an attack is thought to be “highly likely.” It is the second highest of the five threat levels.
At least 500 people are believed to have travelled from Britain to fight in Syria and “potentially in Iraq,” Cameron added. "With IS seeking to extend its rule to Lebanon and Jordan and up to the Turkish border, the West faces the possibility of a terrorist state on the Mediterranean, bordering a NATO member."
Cameron said the government is looking to stop suspects travelling and seizing passports as well as revoking citizenship. Further steps will be announced in parliament on Monday.
He went on: “There will be no knee jerk reactions. We will respond calmly and with purpose.”
May said earlier that threat level rise was in response to events in Iraq and Syria.
She noted there was no intelligence to suggest an attack on the U.K. was imminent.
The last change was made in 2011, when it was reduced to "substantial."
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