Yard fears suicide bomb threat

Scotland Yard has sent a high-ranking officer to Israel amid fears of the threat of terrorist suicide bombers.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Barbara Wilding, the head of the Yard's intelligence gathering and surveillance operations, travelled to the Middle East to meet senior security chiefs to gather intelligence on the methods they use to defeat suicide bombers.

She is understood to have met senior officials from Shin Bet, the Israeli's counter-intelligence and internal security service. She has circulated a report which is believed to highlight the possible threat of suicide attacks in Britain.

News of the development comes a day after US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned that London, Paris and Berlin could be the next targets of international terrorists.

Scotland Yard has already drawn up contingency plans to increase the number of armed officers on the streets in the event of a terrorist threat while extra police are mounting security patrols around potential targets.

The Yard today emphasised there was no intelligence to suggest any such attack was imminent or even planned but the fact they have chosen to send a team to Israel underlines how seriously they are taking the threat.

Whitehall sources say that MI5 has ordered a major review of "protective security" of buildings and people since 11 September and that government and other targets have been advised of new recommended measures. MI5 is also examining the problem of possible suicide attacks against individual people, perhaps from terrorists with bombs or grenades attached to their own bodies. The new advice also deals with toxin attacks from chemical or biological weapons.

Intelligence experts believe there are around 10 terrorist groups who are capable of suicide attacks, most of them based in the Middle East.

All the groups have extensive networks of supporters in Europe and America. A Yard spokeswoman stressed the UK and London in particular had years of experience in dealing with terrorists and a track record second to none.