Woolwich attack: Expert warns Britain face a new type of terror threat

The brutal murder of a soldier in Woolwich was a "departure" from previous attack and represented a "new round of terror threats in this country", experts said today.

John O'Connor, former commander of the Flying Squad, warned that there was no way of knowing if this is "a one-off incident".

Mr O'Connor told BBC News: "It seems to me that this is a departure from the established type of attacks that you see or the established plans that you see of terrorism causing mass murder.

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"You just can't leave anything unprotected at the moment, and I think individuals will clearly be briefed as to what they need to do to be able to protect themselves, so you're into a new round of terror threats in this country, particularly as you don't know the full extent of it.

"As you don't know that - and I don't suppose the authorities know that - they have got to look at the worst case scenario.

"It is pretty horrific what has happened to this poor fellow - to be murdered outside his own barracks just because he's a soldier, or at least that's what it looks like to me."

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Mr O'Connor added that it is "very difficult to keep a tab" on what he described as al Qaida "franchise operations".

He said: "The bottom line of it is that this could spring up anywhere and that's the concern. It's very difficult to keep a tab on where this is going and where the threat level is."

Professor John Gearson, reader in terrorism studies and director of the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College London, said there has been a "worrying" increase in groups "targeting the armed services".

He said: "I would be cautious about reading too much into this at the moment but there has previously been speculation, plans and discussions by some groups about targeting the armed services and that is worrying.

"They might well be al Qaida-inspired or radicalised by sermons they have seen online.

"The fact that they hung around waiting to be arrested and captured is very odd - it is deadly and dangerous but not professional. But it shows they wanted to be seen and achieve some notoriety."

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Calls for the government to track individual's email, text and internet use have been renewed in the wake of the attack.

The Communications Data bill - dubbed the 'snooper's charter' by its critics - was dropped from the Queen's Speech after Liberal Democrat opposition.

Speaking on BBC2's Newsnight yesterday, Lord Carlile said: "I hope that this will give the Government pause for thought about their abandonment for example of the Communications Data Bill and possibly pause for thought about converting control orders into what are now called Tpims, with a diluted set of powers.

"Lone wolves, even though they are always inevitably connected at least with internet training, are very difficult to catch so we must give the authorities proportionate tools to catch them."