Risk of Al-Qaida attacks in Britain remains ‘high’

AL-QAIDA terrorists have a “substantial presence” in Britain, and the risk of attacks remains high, the most senior police officer in England and Wales said yesterday.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner 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 British 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, Mr Stephens said.