New Delhi: An Islamist terror plot to assassinate British Prime Minister Theresa May has been foiled by MI5 and country’s security services. Two men in connection with the conspiracy have been arrested, media reports said today.
The two men were plotting to kill the prime minister by using a bomb disguised as a bag to blow off the gates of Downing Street and then attack her with knives.
The suspects were detained during raids in London and Birmingham last week and charged with terrorism offences. They are due to appear in Westminster Magistrates’ court.
The attack on Westminster in March heralded the start of a spate of attacks, with five terrorist atrocities getting through Britains defenses this year and claiming a total of 36 lives in London and Manchester.
The plot was revealed to the Cabinet yesterday by Andrew Parker, the head of MI5, who also told ministers that security services have foiled nine terrorist attacks on the UK in the last year, media reports said.
The Metropolitan Police said Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman, 20, from north London, and Mohammed Aqib Imran, 21, from Birmingham, had been charged with preparing a terrorist act.
It comes as a new report found that security services could possibly have prevented a suicide attack at the Manchester Arena in May. Bomber Salman Abedi killed 22 people when he blew himself up outside an Ariana Grande concert.
According to a report by the Guardian, Britain’s official terrorist threat level is at severe, meaning an attack is highly likely. At any one time MI5 can actively investigate 3,000 suspects and it has a pool of 20,000 people it has previously examined for signs they are plotting attacks against the UK.
In 1991 the IRA launched a home-made mortar bomb attack on Number 10 Downing Street. The device landed in the back garden. The then prime minister, John Major, was inside but was not hurt.