UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has raised the country’s terror threat level to severe, its second-highest level, following recent attacks in Austria and France.
The “severe” level means terror attacks in UK is considered highly likely. The threat level was announced hours following attack in Vienna, Austria where a gunman killed four people before police shot him dead.
The UK Home Secretary however stated that the increased security alert was a precautionary measure and was not based on any specific threat.
“We have already taken significant steps to amend our powers and strengthen the tools for dealing with the developing terrorist threats we face. That process will continue, and the British public should be in no doubt that we will take the strongest possible action to protect our national security,” UK Home Secretary said in a statement.
UK’s head of Counter Terrorism Policing Neil Basu said there was no intelligence link between the terror attacks in Europe and UK, but nevertheless additional police would be deployed in some places.
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The attack in Vienna was the third major attack in Europe in a span of three weeks, last Thursday a knife attack at a church in Nice, France saw at least three people killed.
The attacker targeted a church, virtually beheading an elderly woman while shooting two others dead in the church.
Weeks earlier, an Islamist extremist beheaded a teacher outside his school in suburban Paris to punish him for showing the caricatures of prophet Muhammed.
Related: One dead several injured in Vienna terror attack
