UK police arrest two teenagers for plotting far-right attack

The UK's counter-terrorism unit arrested two 15-year-old boys on suspicion of planning far-right-inspired terrorist attacks.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

20 September, 2018

The proportion of white people arrested for terror offences is on the rise [Getty]

Two teenagers were arrested in Kent, southeast England on Thursday on suspicion of preparing far-right "terrorist acts", the police's counterterrorism unit said.

The two boys, both aged 15, were arrested at their respective homes in the coastal town of Ramsgate and taken for questioning at a police station.

Det Supt Nigel Doak from Kent Police said in a statement that Thursday's arrests were pre-planned and intelligence-led, and there was no immediate threat to the public or local community.

"We are committed to tackling any and all ideologies which pose a threat to the public's safety and security. We treat the threat from the extreme right in exactly the same way as any other threat," he added.

He urged members of the public to report any suspicious activity, including all types of extremist behaviour, to the police.

The arrest of the two teenagers comes after new statistics showed that arrests of white terror suspects had overtaken that of other ethnicities for the first time in over ten years. This shift is also reflected in the demographics of the prison population.

The Home Office, which released the statistics last week, said: “The number of Islamist, extremist prisoners saw a slight decrease for the first time.

Read more: The rise of mainstream fascism in America

“The proportion of prisoners holding far-right ideologies has increased steadily over the past three years, with the number up from 10 to 28 in the latest year.”

However the number of arrests on terror charges in the UK has decreased overall, by 22 percent in the past year.

In 2016, the neo-Nazi group National Action became the first far-right group in the UK classified as a terrorist organisation.

In July, two 15-year-old boys were jailed in Yorkshire for plotting Columbine-style shooting at their school.

One of the pair, whose diary was discovered by police, is known to have espoused far-right ideology.

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