Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer has revealed that terrorist plots on the scale of those carried out in Paris and Brussels have been foiled in the country in the past four years.
According to the Guardian, launching an appeal for public help in combating terrorism, assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said the thwarted attacks were among 13 plots that had been prevented since the murder of Lee Rigby in 2013.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Rowley said, "Some of them have been more sophisticated planning looking to attack public spaces, or police offices or the military, not that dissimilar to some of the attacks we have seen in Belgium and France and elsewhere. There is a whole range from the simple to the complicated."
As part of the Action Counters Terrorism campaign, a podcast has been produced revealing previously untold stories of how UK terrorist attacks were prevented, featuring accounts from detectives, bomb disposal and surveillance officers.
Rowley said the aim of releasing new material was to give an insight into how terrorists might prepare and provide more confidence for the public to report any suspicions.
TV adverts have been launched appealing for members of the public to report any suspicious conversation they might overhear.
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Rowley also said the threat of terrorism from those inspired by ISIS would continue despite the group's military setbacks in Iraq and Syria. "This threat is going to continue in different forms and it going to keep metamorphosing," he said.
"The reason for this appeal is to say to the public: 'Trust your instinct, we are already getting lots of information on a third of our cases, look at our website, listen to these adverts, and if you pick up anything at all suspicious don't be cautious please us.