Britain narrowly escaped four to five terror attacks this year, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has warned.
While the police successfully foiled the attacks, the Scotland chief admitted that itโs still โvery difficult to guard againstโ those similar to last weekโs incident in Sydney where Man Horan Monis took over the Lindt Chocolat Cafรฉ and held many as 17 people hostage.
When asked if Britain could see a Sydney-style attack, Sir Bernard told LBC: โThere will be, thereโs no doubt. I mean, you know, you look at what happened to Lee Rigby. I mean, there are people out there who are dangerous, and thatโs why we keep arresting them.
โBecause we need to stop them hurting people. And theyโre getting, you know, the operations that we talked about earlier, theyโve been very close to going and hurting somebody, badly, or killing them.โ
โItโs clear youโve got a radicalised individual, who had a weapon, and took many people hostage. That is a terrifying prospect, and very difficult to guard against.โ
Sir Bernard went on to say that the police needs more resources in order to foil terrorist plots and safeguard the capital.
Sir Bernard told LBC: โIn terms of plots over this last four months, really itโs probably five. And weโve arrested, I think, itโs about 35 people.
โHave we got enough resources? Well weโve asked the government for more help. We talked right at the beginning about the fact we are losing money, but in these areas weโve got to invest.
โSo weโve asked for ยฃ50m for across the country and weโre waiting for an answer on that.
โWe need it. Itโs very clear that this type of operation, we call it โburning the resourcesโ, [โฆ] means you use lots of people.โ
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