Scotland Yard warns football fans of terror threat

Scotland Yard today warned football fans traveling to France or attending big screen parties in the UK for the Euro 2016 UEFA tournament to be vigilant of a "severe" terrorist threat.
A contingent of Metropolitan Police officers, including counter-terrorism and public order specialists, have already been sent to support French police for the event which kicks off on Friday.
"We have got to recognise that potentially [there] is a threat. But the important point to make is that the threat level is currently at severe and has not changed. It has been at that level for many years," said Commander Dean Haydon of Scotland Yard's counterterrorism unit.

"There is a generic threat that we are all seeing in the public domain; an aspiration by ISIS [Islamic State] and other terrorist organisations to target the Euros, but nothing specific," he added.
Meanwhile, France has launched a "terror alert" smartphone app to warn people of attack threats during the month-long Euro 2016 championship.
The app, which is free to download in French and English, will send users a warning if the authorities suspect terrorists are about to strike.

Paris remains under a state of emergency imposed after ISIS struck the French capital last November and then Belgium in March.

Updated advice from the UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) highlighted stadiums, fan zones and transport hubs as potential targets in France.
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Tens of thousands of football fans are expected to be drawn to watch the matches in parks, beaches, public squares, bars, pubs and other venues across Europe.
Over the weekend, it had emerged thatBritish special forces had been taking part in multi-national counter-terrorist operations to counter ISIS plots to attack London and other European cities during thefootball championship.
Operation Storm Tide 3 took place recently at Ostend in Belgium where troops stormed a shopping centre and "eliminated" a group of soldiers playing the part of extremists threatening to blow up the building as part of the training exercises.

American intelligence believes Paris, Cologne and Moscow could be targeted during the tournament and fear an attack on London is being primed to coincide with an England game.