‘Remain alert, not alarmed, and trust your instincts’
Greater Manchester Police have issued a statement after the UK terrorist threat level was increased to ‘severe’,
The UK terrorism threat level was raised by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre on Thursday night, meaning a terror attack is ‘highly likely’, after two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, London, on Wednesday.
The body, which is based in MI5 but makes independent assessments, previously set the threat level at ‘substantial’, meaning an attack was “likely”.
Now GMP have said a ‘high-visibility’ policing presence in Greater Manchester’s Jewish communities would remain in place.
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The force issued a statement on Friday night in response to the raising of the threat level.
GMP said: “The safety of everyone within our communities remains our highest priority, and Greater Manchester Police will continue to work, day and night, to keep you safe.
“Following the attack in Golders Green, London, earlier this week, extra patrols were deployed around the city-region, with a particular focus on providing a high-visibility presence within our Jewish communities, and this will continue. We will work closely with our partners, and the approach will be continually reviewed in light of the change in threat level.
“Our neighbourhood policing teams will remain visible and accessible in your area, and we will continue to engage with all our communities across Greater Manchester.”
The force urged the Greater Manchester public to remain alert, not alarmed, and to trust their instincts.
999 should always be called in an emergency.
Higher Broughton, Cheetham Hill and Prestwich are already subject to an increased police presence, including armed cops.
Last year Adrian Daulby and and and Melvin Cravitz were killed during a terror attack at Heaton Park synagogue in October last year. Three men were jailed in February over a plot to kill as many Jews as possible in a planned attack on Jewish areas of Manchester in the summer of 2024.
The decision to raise the level was not solely a result of the Golders Green attack, the Home Office said, adding that the terrorist threat level in the UK has been ‘rising for some time, driven by an increase in broader Islamist and extreme right-wing terrorist threat from individuals and small groups based in the UK’.
It also comes against a backdrop of ‘increased state-linked physical threats which is encouraging acts of violence, including against the Jewish community’, it added.
Head of Counter Terrorism Policing Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said officers have seen an ‘elevated threat’ to the Jewish community.
Speaking outside New Scotland Yard, he said: “Our casework is increasing across a number of ideologies, and within that, we are seeing an elevated threat to Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions in the UK. We’re also working against an unpredictable global situation that has consequences closer to home, including physical threats by state-linked actors.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood urged people to be “vigilant”.
“I know this will be a source of concern to many, particularly amongst our Jewish community, who have suffered so much,” she said.
“As the threat level rises, I urge everyone to be vigilant, as they go about their daily lives, and report any concerns they have to the police. And I can assure everyone that our world-class security services and the police are working, day and night, to keep our country safe.”
The last time the level was raised to severe was in November 2021 after two attacks in the space of a month, with a bombing outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital on Remembrance Sunday and the murder of Conservative MP for Southend West Sir David Amess in October.
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