The number of terrorism-related arrests in Britain has surged almost 70 per cent to a new record high, as the country’s security services grapple an unprecedented threat.
The Home Office announced that 379 people were arrested in the 12 months to June — the highest number of arrests since collection of data began in 2001 — as the UK suffered an intense period of deadly attacks carried out by Islamists.
Revealing that suspects were being detained at a rate of more than one a day, the figures included 12 arrests in connection with the Westminster attack in March, 23 linked to the Manchester Arena terror bombing in May, 21 in relation to the London Bridge attack in June, and one arrest following the van attack at Finsbury Park.
According to the Home Office quarterly bulletin on the police’s use of counter-terrorism powers, 123 of the suspects arrested were charged — 105 with terrorism offences — while 189 were released.
Of the 379 people arrested on suspicion of terror offences, 70 per cent said they considered themselves to be British. The proportion of women arrested (14 per cent) was the largest on record.
Prisons saw the number of terrorist inmates rise by 35 per cent this year to 204, continuing an upward trend since statistics were first collected in 2001.
The majority of terrorist prisoners (91 per cent) held Islamist views, while five per cent held far right views and the other four per cent followed ideologies classified as ‘other’, according to official data.
Last month Breitbart London reported that the threat of Islamist terror in Britain — currently held at “severe”, which means an attack is “highly likely” — has, along with rising levels of crime, seen some of the nation’s cities slip down international rankings for livability.
European Union Counter-Terrorism Co-ordinator Gilles de Kerchove estimates that “more than 50,000″ radicals have been identified throughout the continent — but notes that many more are going unnoticed due to Islamists’ “increasing use of taqiyya” — a form of religiously sanctioned deception — to conceal their beliefs.