Neo-Nazis are getting younger and more violent in the UK as teenagers are drawn into “disturbing” movements, a report has warned.

Research by counterextremism group Hope Not Hate found that children as young as 13 were becoming involved in a new wave of organisations that are gathering support online.

“The trend towards younger, more violent Nazis is a real concern and needs to be monitored closely,” researchers said.

“The threat of far-right terrorism comes from both organised groups, like National Action, but increasingly from lone actors who get radicalised on the internet.”

Researcher Duncan Cahill said young teenagers were among those involved in emerging neo-Nazi networks, but have no clear aim.

Brexit racism and the fightback Show all 9 1 /9 Brexit racism and the fightback Brexit racism and the fightback Demonstrators protest against an increase in post-ref racism at London's March for Europe in July 2016 PA Brexit racism and the fightback These cards were found near a school in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, the day after the EU referendum Twitter/@howgilb Brexit racism and the fightback LONDON, UK - JULY 16 : A speaker addresses the EDL members at Hyde Park. About a hundred members of The English Defence League (EDL) march on Park Lane for a rally in Hyde Park. The march on 16 July 2016 was heavily policed keeping the group away from the public. (Photo by David Mbiyu/Corbis via Getty Images) Getty Brexit racism and the fightback Romford, Essex, June 25 @diamondgeezer Brexit racism and the fightback A worker at this Romanian food shop was asleep upstairs at the time of this arson attack in Norwich on July 8, but escaped unharmed. Hundreds later participated in a ‘love bombing’ rally outside the shop to express their opposition to racism and their support of the shop owners. JustGiving/Helen Linehan Brexit racism and the fightback This neo-Nazi sticker was spotted in Glasgow on June 26 Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback But after news emerged of neo-Nazi stickers appearing in Glasgow, some in the city struck back with slogans of their own. Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback The Peoples Assembly Against Austerity, Black Live Matters and The Socialist Workers Party organised a march on Saturday July 16th in London, United Kingdom, against austerity, cuts and Racism. The groups also marched in solidarity against Tory government policies. (Photo by Gail Orenstein/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Getty Brexit racism and the fightback More signs began to appear in some parts of the UK, created by people who wanted to show their opposition to post-referendum racism Courtesy of Bernadette Russell

“It’s a death cult,” he told The Independent. “They want to be noticed, to be feared, to be respected. A lot of them will grow out of it but some of them won’t.”

Security services say the dominant terror threat to the UK comes from Isis and other Islamist groups, but have warned of the growing risk posed by the far right following the Finsbury Park attack and murder of Jo Cox.

Neo-Nazi group National Action was founded by two students in 2013 and became notorious for targeting universities with racist propaganda, as it continued to target teenagers and young men.

The State of Hate report said the government’s 2016 ban caused members to fracture into a series of spin-off groups continuing the same ideology.

Two – Scottish Dawn and NS131 – have been banned and The Independent understands that security officials are discussing whether to proscribe other alleged factions.

But for now, neo-Nazi groups including the System Resistance Network, Sonnenkrieg Division and Order of Nine Angles continue to operate across England and Wales.

Hope Not Hate said the groups were potentially “even more hardline” than National Action, with some drawing on Satanic influences and the idea of “white jihad”.

Mr Cahill said members were “misogynistic and deeply obsessed with violence”, while also hating Jews and other races.

National Action: Neo-Nazi terrorist couple who named baby ‘Adolf’ jailed

“They have picked up where National Action left off,” he added. “By the time it finished it was a death cult, it was into paedophilia, it was into Satanism and the idea of white jihad and martyrdom … people are assuming a race war is inevitable.

“We’re seeing more dangerous, more cult-like, end of days behaviour.”

Mr Cahill said the decline of far-right political parties the National Front and British National Party had caused older neo-Nazis to be replaced by younger, more internet savvy extremists.

“For the new generation of Nazis, Hitler isn’t enough,” he added. “The ideology is now harder, darker and more committed than ever before because they just don’t see a way out of race war.

“They are not recruiting people like they used to, football hooligan types, they’re recruiting people attracted to the secrecy of the dark web and bedroom fantasies.

“It’s really beginning to mirror what we saw when a lot of kids were going off to Syria.”

Hope Not Hate estimates that up to 60 people are active in neo-Nazi networks inspired by National Action, but their use of encryption and dark web forums makes the true number hard to gauge.

Adam Thomas and Claudia Patatas posed for pictures with their son alongside Nazi paraphernalia (PA)

Former members of National Action include a man who plotted to murder a Labour MP, another who tried to behead an Asian man in Tesco, a teenager who tried to make a pipe bomb and an extremist who planned a massacre at an LGBT+ pride event.

The group became the first far-right organisation to be banned in the UK in 2016, after praising the murder of Labour MP Ms Cox and tweeting: “Only 649 MPs to go”.

Membership is a criminal offence, seeing a couple who gave their baby the middle name “Adolf” in Hitler’s honour jailed last year.

In the year to September, 40 per cent of terror suspects arrested were white, 33 per cent were Asian, 12 per cent were black and 14 per cent were recorded as other.