Finland raised its national terror alert level to “elevated,’’ the second stage on a new four-point scale, the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) said on Wednesday.
The move came with the publication of a new terror assessment in which Supo officials disclosed they had uncovered serious terrorism-related plans and threats posed by individuals or groups who supported radical Islamist terrorist groups such as Islamic State.
The assessment did not disclose the details of the uncovered plans and threats.
As part of efforts to illustrate the threat that was “bigger than before,’’ Supo simultaneously introduced a new four-point terror scale, the national agency’s chief Antti Pelttari said.
The four levels on the new scale were: low, elevated, high and severe.
Supo’s previous threat assessment from November 2015 said the threat of structured attacks by terrorist organisations was low.
According to Supo’s assessment, more people had left Finland to fight for jihadist groups like Islamic State; some had reached influential positions in the extremist group; and more Finland-targeted propaganda was being produced to incite attacks in Finland.
An estimated 350 individuals were under Supo’s surveillance, and the number was likely to increase, the agency added.
(Source: NAN)