Crack SAS team rushed to London after Nice attack sparks terror fears

A TEAM of 40 SAS soldiers was secretly flown into London within hours of the Nice attack ready to provide an immediate response to an Islamic State assault, it has been revealed.

The “Immediate Response” team is part of a larger force who have been training across the UK alongside police, the Special Boat Service and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment.

Meanwhile, members of Britain's top secret military Human Intelligence unit have been placed in London to work as spotters – tracking suspicious behaviour in key target areas and tracing would–be jihadis who have stopped using their phones for fear they may be caught.

A source said: “So many of the people being followed, close to 100 jihadists in the UK, no longer use their mobile phone because they known they can be intercepted.

“This means any of them who is inspired by the Nice attack could launch an attack at a moment’s notice and they will need to be neutralised very quickly.”

The crack SAS team is charged with providing support to police as they take down a potential terror threat.

The group have been training intensively, performing mission rehearsal exercises in an area near Bristol.

The exercises see them land in MoD owned Dauphin helicopters with an Apache attack helicopter close behind to provide firepower – as well as giving them access to the chopper’s high power ‘day and night’ camera.

A senior source told the Daily Mirror: “The capability of UK Special Forces is immense, but they will only be used if the police request their support.

“They have helicopters assets near the city and also have people with the police.

“We know that these people are likely to be wearing a suicide vest and so for weeks the teams have been on the range making sure that they can hit the target in the head with one shot from several hundred yards.”

The attack in Nice left 84 people dead after French-Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drove a lorry through a crowd of people celebrating Bastille day.

However, no terror links have been confirmed, with the attacker’s past rap sheet only including instances of violent petty crime.

Paris prosecutor François Molins said Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had been “completely unknown to both France’s domestic and foreign intelligence officials”.

He added: “Although yesterday’s attack has not been claimed, this sort of thing fits in perfectly with calls for murder from such terrorist organisations.”