A dramatic statement on the website of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs adds that visitors need to exercise ‘extreme vigilance’.
This is especially so in world famous sites like London’s Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus, and on the capital’s public transport system.
While Britain and the USA have already warned people to be careful when travelling in Europe, the French advice is by far the most extreme to date.
It invokes the 1990s and early 2000s when Gallic secret agents regularly monitored suspected Islamic radicals in a city referred to by the French as ‘Londonistan’.
And the statement was issued after terrorist suspect killed in a drone attack in Pakistan last month was identified as a British man tasked with leading an Al Qaeda group in the UK.
Many security specialists across the Channel believe the 7/7 suicide bomb attacks on London tube trains and buses in 2005 could have been avoided if the British authorities had shown more vigilance beforehand.
In contrast, President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered one of the toughest crackdowns on Islamic extremists to date, with raids in Avignon, Bordeaux and Marseilles on Tuesday leading to 12 arrests.
Suspects were found with enough guns and ammunition to launch a ‘Mumbai-style attack’ anywhere in Europe, with at least five European airports highlighted as possible targets.
‘They were storing a lot of weapons including Kalashnikov machine guns – just the kind which could be used in a Mumbai-style attack anywhere in Europe,’ said a detective involved in the operation.
The men were held after their phone numbers were found on the mobile phone of a -suspected terrorist arrested in Italy at the weekend.
They are also believed to have been recruiting young men willing to travel to Afghanistan to fight coalition forces.
Following the raids, French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said: ‘There is a terrorist threat at the moment in Europe. It must be neither overestimated nor underestimated.’
It comes after a spate of attacks by militants and warnings about the increasing strength of Islamic extremism, including:
* A British woman deputy ambassador escapes injury in Yemen rocket attack
* The Briton killed in drone attack was set to lead Islamic terror 'army' in UK
* Sixth attack on stranded Afghanistan fuel convoy
* Taliban in secret talks with Hamid Karzai to end war
* Tony Blair warns 'West is being outspent and outmanoeuvred by Islamic extremists'
Last week, security agents in France, Britain and Germany warned Al Qaeda terrorists were planning a Mumbai-style atrocity in Europe.
The alert was sparked after Ahmad Sidiqi, an Afghan informant said to have known Mohammed Atta, mastermind of the 9/11 2001 attacks, told US interrogators of the chilling plot.
Sidiqi said Ilyas Kashmiri, an Al Qaeda commander linked to the 2008 attacks in Mumbai in India that left 174 people dead, had told him that teams had already been sent to Europe to launch similar assaults.
The United States and Britain warned their citizens on Sunday of an increased risk of terrorist attacks in Europe, with Washington saying al Qaeda might target transport infrastructure.
Britain raised the terrorism alert level in its advice for travellers to Germany and France to ‘high from ‘general,’ while leaving the threat level at home unchanged at ‘severe’.
0 comments:
Post a Comment