The Prime Minister made the announcement in the wake of the suicide bombing in Manchester on Monday night.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that the terror threat level in the United Kingdom has been raised from severe to critical following the suicide bombing that killed 22 people and injured another 59 in Manchester on Monday night.
A threat level of critical, the highest of five threat levels that give a broad indication of the likelihood of a terrorist attack, means that “an attack is expected imminently”.
More information on threat levels is available here.
PM Theresa May: UK terror threat level raised from severe to critical, which means further attack may be imminent https://t.co/I7YngSds2C pic.twitter.com/lcmoVQFUaI
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) May 23, 2017
In a statement on Tuesday night, May said: “This morning I said that the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, the independent organisation responsible for setting the threat level on the basis of the intelligence available, was keeping the threat level under constant review.
“It is now concluded, on the basis of today’s investigations, that the threat level should be increased, for the time being, from severe to critical.
“This means that their assessment is not only that an attack remains highly likely, but that a further attack may be imminent.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the man responsible for the suicide bombing of the Manchester Arena was identified as Salman Abedi, a British man of Libyan origin.
