London, July 20 (DPA) The terrorism threat level in Britain was Monday reduced to “substantial” after being at “severe” since 2007, the Home Office said.
The “substantial” level was still high, meaning a “strong possibility” of terrorist attack in the view of the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) which declares the levels.
Under the “severe” level, such an attack had been judged “highly likely”. The JTAC, part of the MI5 security service, said the current threat “comes principally from Al Qaeda and related networks”.
“Substantial” is the third-highest level after “critical” (attack expected imminently) and “severe” (attack highly likely), and ahead of two lower levels – “moderate” (attack possible, but not likely) and “low” (attack unlikely).
The threat was last at critical in June 2007, after an attack on Glasgow Airport and failed car bombings in central London.
