One of the terrorists behind the Paris attacks visited two British cities earlier this year, counter-terrorism officials have established.

He managed to enter the United Kingdom, travelling to London and Birmingham, before slipping away again to continental Europe, despite a heightened terrorism alert. In both cities he met with people suspected of having the intention and capability of plotting or assisting terrorist activity against the UK.

Months later he was part of the series of attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and plunged France into its biggest national security crisis since the second world war. It is not known how he got into the UK. The British-based suspects he visited are under investigation by MI5 and police counter-terrorism units.

The Isis militant entered Britain despite the terrorism threat level being at “severe”, meaning the prospect of an attack was highly likely. The Home Office, the government department responsible for border security, last night declined to comment.



Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the 28-year-old Belgian extremist named as ringleader of the Paris attacks, had boasted in Isis propaganda of his ability to travel unnoticed into and through Europe. He died after the attacks in a siege in the St-Denis area as French security forces surrounded him.

A total of 11 terrorists were behind the attacks on Paris, which were carried out three weeks ago.

Abaaoud, who was born in Morocco, was linked with several terrorist plots in Europe and was thought to have been in Syria with Isis since late last year. He was named in European and international arrest warrants but travelled through Europe apparently without being detained.

British security officials reacted immediately after the Paris attacks to review security and plans to thwart terrorist attacks against the UK. Scotland Yard bosses were drafting plans on how to respond barely two hours after the Paris attacks had started.

One police document shows the “strategic aims” set by Scotland Yard at midnight on Friday/Saturday of the attacks, as “protect life and maximise public safety”, “maintain public order and peace”, including “maintain community cohesion”. It also shows planning to “provide extra reassurance for affected or vulnerable communities including Jewish and Islamic communities” and to “mitigate fears through providing messages to communities at neighbourhood levels”.

Furthermore a special British police unit was put on standby for an emergency national mobilisation of officers as security chiefs and government considered taking the United Kingdom to its highest state of terrorist alert because of the carnage inflicted on the French capital

Of the 11 Paris attackers, nine are dead and two are on the run. Most victims died at the Bataclan concert hall, others in attacks on bars and restaurants, with attacks also staged by suicide bombers outside the Stade de France during a football match between France and Germany.

Three weeks on, detectives from Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command are still in Paris, working alongside French colleagues investigating the attacks.

A spokesperson for the Home Office declined to comment. Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command would not confirm or deny that a Paris attacker had previously visited Britain.

After the Paris attacks, concern among UK counter-terrorism officials and senior government figures about an attack in Britain was heightened. Emerging information about this week’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, may only add to that sense.



UK officials say they have been involved in intense activity to counter the threat of jihadi attacks for over a year, with police saying they are making nearly an arrest a day. Even before the Paris attacks, counter-terrorism chiefs had talked of an escalating threat posed by Isis.

In a speech last month MI5’s chief, Andrew Parker, warned that Isis had grown in its determination that its attacks should kill the maximum number of people. “We have seen greater ambition for mass casualty attacks. All of this underlines the growing threat we face,” he said in a rare public speech. “It may not yet have reached the high water mark and despite the successes we have had, we can never be confident of stopping everything.”

In the UK the terrorism threat level is severe, meaning officials believe an attack is highly likely. The vote in parliament for military action in Syria may add to Isis’s desire to attack the UK, although it was already assessed as “highly likely”.