The brutal murder of a British soldier on a London street has the hallmarks of a militant Islamist attack but one conducted by 'lone wolf' operators - a security nightmare, experts today said.
Counter-terror police are investigating yesterday's attack in which two men hacked the soldier to death in broad daylight. They were shot and wounded by police and are now in hospitals under armed guard.
The gruesome nature of the murder - some witnesses say the men tried to decapitate their victim - their politically-fuelled rants to passers-by, and their apparent desire for publicity all point to militant Islamist extremism, experts say.
But the small scale of the attack - far removed from the massive destruction of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US and the coordinated suicide bombings in London in 2005 - fit with fears that lone operators are now a serious threat.
"This is a departure from the established type of attacks that you see or the established plan that you see of terrorism causing mass murder," explained John O'Connor, a former head of the Scotland Yard police headquarters' 'Flying Squad' detective unit.
Security experts have long warned of the risk of terror attacks from individuals who slip under the radar.
Last year Jonathan Evans, the head of British spy agency MI5, warned about the threat from "lone actors" who were hard to identify because they used everyday weapons, often did not belong to any group and did not attend terror training camps abroad.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron has acknowledged reports that the two suspects may have been previously known to the intelligence services, but praised the work of the security forces in foiling plots up until now.
The murder was the first fatal Islamist attack in Britain since 52 people were killed in suicide bombings on the London transport system eight years ago.
Since then, surveillance has been stepped up, as have border controls, and many plots have been disrupted.
Some of these have targeted British soldiers, who were once told not wear their uniforms in public due to a threat from Irish republicans, but in recent years have been encouraged to do so.
