Now football fans are in danger as they watch the Euros in BRITAIN, security chiefs warn

BRITISH football fans could be sitting ducks for murderous terrorists as they watch the European Championships, even while on English soil.

Counter-terrorism chiefs are urging football lovers to be “vigilant at all times” as crowded venues showing England’s Euro exploits will be prime targets for violent extremists.

Newly-released advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) claims stadiums, fan zones and transport hubs will be potential terrorist targets in France and in the UK.

There is “a high threat from terrorism”, according to the FCO and the commander of Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism unit, Dean Haydon, is warning against attacks on home soil.

He said: “We are policing [the public events] as we would do normally and obviously keeping an eye on France.

“We have got to recognise that potentially [there] is a threat. But the important point to make is that the threat level is currently at severe and has not changed. It has been at that level for many years.”

Authorities are guarding against Islamic State inspired attacks, although Mr Haydon stressed there was no specific information about a planned terror attack in Britain.

But the arrest of a far-right extremist accused of plotting attacks at the Euros suggests the threat is not only coming from Islamist extremists.

Gregoire Moutaux, 25, was stopped on the Ukrainian border with Poland in May with five Kalashnikov rifles, 5,000 rounds of ammunition, two rocket launchers and 125kg of high explosives — the weapons had been supplied as part of an undercover sting.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister David Cameron released a statement in response to the FCO’s comments.

It reads: “The travel advice was made about specific areas as clear information for fans. It is consistent with the FCO’s advice of a high terror threat in France.”

Metropolitan Police officers are teaming-up with the 77,000 French gendarmes, 10,000 military officers and 10,000 security guards at the European Championships in a bid to ensure the tournament passes without incident.

Mr Haydon added: “There is a generic threat that we are all seeing in the public domain; an aspiration by Isis and other terrorist organisations to target the Euros, but nothing specific.”

Last week the US State Department warned American tourists that they were at risk of attack this summer during major events across Europe in an unusually broad travel alert.

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