Signal Bladed or blunt weapons used in almost 80% of UK attacks since 2018

Summary

The report explains that sustained controls on explosives precursors and firearms have shifted terrorist methods towards easily obtained tools such as knives and cars. As a result, bladed or blunt weapons featured in close to four in five terrorist attacks in the UK since 2018. In that period, nine attacks in the UK killed six people and injured twenty. Alongside this reliance on simple means, the report expects the threat to be increasingly driven by self-initiated terrorists operating outside organised networks. Over the longer term, however, it also raises the possibility that easier access to technologies such as AI lets terrorists move towards more sophisticated and technical attack methods.