Terrorists have been ‘very close to hurting somebody badly, or killing them’ since the summer and there is ‘no doubt’ that there are extremists in the UK as dangerous as the gunman behind the Sydney café siege, the Commissioner warned.
And he claimed officers are struggling to cope with the mountain of digital files seized in police raids, with recent cases seeing terror suspects hours from being released before crucial evidence was found for them to be charged.
David Cameron last night warned Britain could be hit 'at any moment' by a Sydney-style terror attack.
Two hostages died and Islamic extremist Man Haron Monis was killed after a 16-hour siege in the busy financial district of the Australian capital.
The Prime Minister said it was only through the efforts of the security services that plots to murder UK police officers ‘in cold blood’ had been foiled in recent months.
But Sir Bernard insisted that the police need extra resources to deal with the growing terror threat in Britain. In a wide-ranging interview, the country's most senior police chief:
Revealed five plots have been thwarted in the past four months, including some which were just days away from killing and maiming on the streets of Britain
Demanded an extra £50million to fund counter-terror operations, including tracking suspects and analysing digital evidence
Warned that children as young as 15, including growing numbers of girls, are travelling to fight in Syria, using Spain as a stop-off to Turkey to avoid detection
Appealed to members of the public, and even other criminals, to report any unusual behaviour which could be linked to terrorism
Sir Bernard told LBC Radio: ‘In terms of plots over these last four months really it’s probably five. We have arrested 35 people.’
The dramatic warning comes amid growing fears of a so-called lone wolf attack in the UK.
In Sydney, the Iranian asylum seeker Monis struck terror into the heart of the city after taking 17 staff and customers hostages inside the Lindt cafe in Martin Place.
The 50-year-old gunman is believed to have fired the first shots, which sparked teams of heavily armed police to swoop on the café at 2am on Tuesday.
