THE ISIS cell behind the Paris attacks plotted a same-day atrocity in Britain and Germany, officials fear.
Intelligence sources believe ringleaders Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Mohamed Abrini visited the UK months earlier to vet recruits.
A source said: “Crucially the cell found it difficult to amass explosives and place a trusted bombmaker in the UK.” Instead the cell redoubled efforts in Paris, killing 130 last November.
And 32 died when the surviving terrorists bombed Brussels in March.
Abaaoud, the cell’s quartermaster, visited the UK last summer. He died in a shootout in his Paris bolthole days after the attacks. “Man in the hat” Abrini, 31, now in Belgian custody, is known to have travelled here at least three times.
Security experts are probing claims the pair went to London and the Midlands to “audition” up to ten recruits. Information from phones linked to the pair is said to show they met people with ties to British extremist groups.
There is also an increasing belief senior ISIS chief Abu Mohammed al-Adnani was behind the attacks.
Fear over an attack via Ulster
ISLAMIST terrorists will use Northern Ireland as a “back door” to attack the UK, security sources fear.
The alarm has been raised in Whitehall that the province is a soft target for ISIS jihadists because the focus is on stopping sectarian violence and there is a “blind spot” for Islamist terror.
There are worries home-grown terrorists are being missed because the Prevent counter-radicalisation strategy does not apply there.
And there are fears the open border with the Republic of Ireland could let a would-be terrorist slip in.
A senior minister said: “Unfortunately it’s only a matter of time before groups like ISIS realise Northern Ireland could be an easier route to attack the UK.”
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