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London: British anti-terror officials are monitoring tens of thousands of people and are following hundreds of networks in an effort to keep the country safe, Britain's Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said on Sunday.
"There are 22,000 individuals police and security agencies are monitoring. There are 200 networks and 30 active plots." The figures represented an increase over the past two years, Smith said. It was not immediately clear whether the 22,000 people were all suspected terrorists, or whether the figure included suspected terrorist sympathisers or even innocent people caught up in surveillance operations.
The number is much higher than the figure given last year by Jonathan Evans, current head of MI5. He said Britain was home to 2,000 people who posed a direct threat to security.
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