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Up to 5,000 jihadists trained in the Middle East could be at large in Europe, the EU’s police chief has warned.

“Europe is currently facing the highest terror threat in more than 10 years,” said Rob Wainwright, the British head of Europol, the EU’s police agency.

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Thousands of EU citizens have returned to their home countries after being trained by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Wainwright said.

“We can expect ISIL or other religious terror groups to stage an attack somewhere in Europe with the aim of achieving mass casualties among the civilian population,” he told Germany’s Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung newspaper.

Before becoming head of Europol in 2009, Wainwright served in senior roles at the UK’s National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) and Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA).

Europol estimates the number of EU citizens who have slipped back after terror training in the Middle East as between 3,000 and 5,000, he said.