London: As Britain downgraded its terror threat from 'critical' to 'severe' on Monday, latest investigation revealed that some radicalised Muslims in the country have been conducting terror training camps in parks in England and Wales.
The threat level has been downgraded following latest Home Office assessment that an attack on Britain was "highly likely" but no longer "imminent". The change means that the ban on taking hand baggage on to flights from Britain has been lifted, although some restrictions still remain.
Home Secretary John Reid said although police believe the main suspects in the alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners had been arrested, there was still the threat of a terror attack.
He said: "The public needs to know that there may be other people out there who may be planning an attack against the UK. That is why there are a number of other security service operations under way.
"I want to stress, therefore, that the change in the threat level does not mean that the threat has gone away. There is still a very serious threat of an attack. The threat level is at 'severe', indicating the high likelihood of an attempted terrorist attack at some stage, and I urge the public to remain vigilant."
Meanwhile, Britons woke up Monday to shocking reports of suspected terrorists conducting training exercises in some of the most popular areas of the national parks of England and Wales.
According to a report in The Guardian, undercover detectives have watched groups of up to 20 men, some with known terrorist connections, taking part in outdoor training in the Lake District and elsewhere. The exercises have gone on sporadically for several years, but some training camps are understood to have been run in the past 12 months.
None is believed to be related to last week's arrests for an alleged plot to blow up planes leaving Heathrow, but security sources told the newspaper that the use of training camps in remote areas of the country was typical of terrorists seeking to build cells in this country.
The report said: "The revelation of the camps is likely to raise anxiety about the number of potential terrorists in the UK, though laws introduced in April allow prosecutors to seek a life sentence for anyone convicted of the offence. Surveillance teams watching the groups in the Lake District are thought to have gathered evidence to pass on to crown prosecutors."
The daily said it knew the precise location of the camps where the group had been monitored in the Lake District, but could not disclose it. The group, unaware it has been under surveillance, was not undergoing weapons or explosives training.
The report quotes Colin Cramphorn, chief constable of West Yorkshire, as saying that camps would be found in the Yorkshire Dales and the western Highlands, as well as the Lakes.
Meanwhile, Muslim community leaders said extremist Islamist groups had been targeting disaffected young men in the east London area, from where a key group of suspects were arrested last week.
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