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The UK’s terror threat level has been raised from “substantial” to “serious”, meaning that an attack is now considered to be “very likely”.
The move follows Monday night’s attack in the Austrian capital. Vienna, in which four people died.
Last week, three people died after a knife attack in Nice, France, while teacher Samuel Paty he was assassinated in Paris last month.
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Interior Minister Priti Patel described the action as a “precautionary measure following the terrible incidents we saw in France last week and the events we saw in Austria last night.”
“The British public should be alert but not alarmed,” said Ms Patel, who confirmed that there will now be “more visible surveillance across the country”.
She added: “That is correct in light of the increasing threat, but as I have said, the public should not be alarmed, this is a precautionary measure.”
The interior secretary urged the public to inform the police of any matter of concern.
The decision to raise the UK threat level has been made by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center (JTAC).
The terrorist threat level had previously been at ‘substantial’ since November last year.
JTAC is based at MI5 headquarters in London and is made up of counter-terrorism experts from the police, government and security agencies.
A UK security source told Sky News’ security and defense correspondent Alistair Bunkall that there was no specific threat to the UK, but that recent attacks in Europe had felt “different in tactics and pace” , and the elevated threat level was an answer to that.
The source added that the UK has been operating at the top of ‘substantial’ for some time and it wouldn’t take much to push the UK into the ‘severe’ category, with Vienna being that push.
The level of terrorist threat had been “substantial” since November last year, when it was lowered from “serious” for the first time in five years.
The “severe” level is the second highest level, with only “critical” above it, which was reached in May 2017 after the Manchester Arena bombing.
Following Monday night’s attack in Vienna, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “deeply shocked.”
He added on Twitter: “The UK’s thoughts are with the Austrian people – we stand with you against terrorism.”
The five levels of terrorist threat are:
Low – an attack is very unlikely
Moderate – an attack is possible, but not likely
Substantial – an attack is likely
Serious – an attack is very likely
Critical – an attack is very likely to occur in the near future
Four people were killed in the Vienna attack on Monday night.
Analysis: A sobering hint of intelligence officials’ concerns
By Mark White, Home Affairs Correspondent
This decision is a sobering indication of how concerned intelligence officials are that a wave of terror attacks in Europe will spread to Britain.
The threat level is now “severe”, which means that a terrorist attack is very likely to occur.
It had previously been downgraded to ‘substantial’ in November 2019.
This came after intelligence analysts assessed that the international terrorism threat to the UK was still significant, but had been reduced enough to suggest that planned attacks were no longer highly likely.
Now, the current threat facing European nations has been quickly reassessed following multiple attacks on French interests and Monday’s firearms attack in the Austrian capital Vienna.
The motivation for the latest attack is still not entirely clear, but the gunman, who was shot and killed by police, has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terror group.
The group has already called for attacks on French interests because of the French government’s strong defense of the right to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The stance has angered many in the Muslim world, who view such descriptions of their most revered prophet as extremely offensive.
