Cameron says UK terrorist attack is ‘highly likely’

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has placed the UK on high alert for a terror attack amid increased security checks at British airports and ferry terminals.

Speaking in the wake of the horrific Paris attacks that killed at least 128 people and left scores of people battling for their lives, Cameron said the scale of the atrocity in France revealed “a greater ambition for mass-casualty attacks” on the West, and warned that an attempt to bring terror to the UK was “highly likely.”

Cameron’s warning comes as Britain prepares to hold crucial talks on the growing terror threat with Russia president Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Turkey on Monday. The summit has taken on new urgency after the series of attacks in Paris pushed the fight against Islamic State militants to the top of the agenda.

The two-day of the Group 20 major economies brings US, Russia, UK, and the leaders of fellow world leaders just 500 km from Syria, where a four-and-a-half-year conflict has transformed the Islamic State into a global security and spawned Europe’s largest humanitarian crisis since World War Two.

The coordinated attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris puts the leaders under increased pressure to find a common cause. France is expected to retaliate to the attacks by taking on a larger role in the US-led coalition’s bombing against IS, and likewise David Cameron is destined to be coaxed as well, vowing to “wipe out” the militant group and its ideology.  

The Independent reported there was no change in the UK government’s position on air strikes in Syria: they are being ruled out until “political consensus” can be reached.

“Our hearts go out to the French people, and to all those who lost loved ones … The British and French people stand together, as we have so often before in our history when confronted by evil,” Cameron said while condemning the attacks in Paris.

Cameron said the victims were “simply going about their way of life”, adding: “They were killed and injured by brutal, callous murderers who want to destroy everything our two countries stand for: peace, tolerance, liberty.”

The UK prime minister said the police and security services would review their anti-terror plans in the wake of the Paris attacks, but urged people to remain vigilant and exercise caution.

“We will not let them. We will redouble our efforts to wipe out this poisonous, extremist ideology and, together with the French and our allies around the world, stand up for all we believe in,” he said.

Britons in Paris were also urged to “exercise caution in public places” and pointed to the French government’s call for people to “stay indoors”.