UK terror threat level raised to ‘SEVERE’ after Liverpool blast

UK: The UK’s terror threat level has been upgraded from “substantial” to “severe” following an explosion outside a Liverpool hospital that had been declared a terrorist incident.

Monday’s upgrade, confirmed by Home Secretary Priti Patel, means further attacks are judged to be “highly likely”, reports Xinhua news agency.

“The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre are now increasing the UK’s threat level from substantial to severe,” Patel told local media.

“And there’s a reason for that, and that reason is that what we saw yesterday is the second incident in a month.”

The “severe” level is the second-highest alert in the UK, whose five-level terrorism threat alert system consists of “low, moderate, substantial, severe and critical”.

Sunday’s explosion outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital was caused by “the ignition of an explosive device” that was brought into the vehicle by a male passenger, said Russ Jackson, chief of a counter-terrorism unit in northwest England.

The male passenger died in the explosion and the taxi driver managed to escape. The police believe they know the identity of the passenger but were yet to confirm.

The suspected terrorist who was killed in a taxi explosion outside a women’s hospital in Liverpool on Sunday has been named as Emad al Swealmeen, of Syrian and Iraqi heritage.

The 32-year-old is believed to have been an asylum seeker from the Middle East who reportedly converted to Christianity a few years ago. The UK’s Counter-Terrorism Police said on Monday that he was associated with two addresses in the city of Liverpool in north-west England.

– IANS