Britain on beheading alert: Security stepped up for police and Jewish schools as fears grow of new jihadi strike

• Jewish community buildings will receive extra police protection after Paris
• Intelligence sources fear fanatics will launch their own UK terror attacks
• The country's 70 Jewish schools have been placed on high alert
• Britain's senior anti-terror police chief warned of increased risk of attack

By Ian Drury for the Daily Mail

Security was dramatically stepped up for police officers and the Jewish community in Britain yesterday amid fears of a terror attack.

Intelligence chiefs are worried that Islamist fanatics could try to copy the atrocities in France last week that cost 17 lives.

Four Jewish people and three police officers were among the dead.

Fears of similar carnage in the UK intensified on Thursday after commandos in Belgium killed Islamic State fanatics who wanted to behead a policeman or a judge. The plot held chilling echoes of the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby outside his barracks in Woolwich.

In other developments:

• David Cameron and Barack Obama pledged to stand shoulder to shoulder in the fight against terrorism;
• Intelligence sources said as many as 20 sleeper cells with 180 fanatics could be ready to strike in Europe;
• Nearly 800 people have been put on a Home Office programme targeting potential extremists;

The Duchess of Cambridge has reportedly been given enhanced security on a public appearance.

Mark Rowley, the UK’s senior counter-terrorism officer, said: ‘The global picture of terrorist activity does give us heightened concern about the risk to the Jewish community.’

The Met assistant commissioner said the murders at a kosher supermarket in Paris, coupled with a rise in anti-semitic rhetoric from extremists, justified more patrols in areas with large Jewish populations, including London, Leeds and Manchester.

Some 263,000 people in Britain describe themselves as Jewish. The country’s 70 Jewish schools have been put on high alert.

The Community Security Trust, which advises Jewish institutions and groups on safety, said: ‘We spend an inordinate amount of money on security, particularly on our schools – as we should. Obviously there’s a change in the threat level because there could be people who might be perversely inspired by what they saw happen [in Paris].’

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