Terror threat level reduced from ‘critical’ to ‘severe’ says Theresa May

THERESA MAY has lowered the terror threat level as fresh arrests and raids have been carried out linked to Monday’s suicide bombing.

Troops will be gradually withdrawn from the streets from Monday onwards, having been drafted in to bolster police numbers, the Prime Minister said.

The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) increased the threat level to “critical” – its highest level – meaning a further terror attack was considered “imminent”.

It has now been reduced to “severe”, meaning a further assault is “highly likely”.

Speaking after a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee, she said the decision had been taken after “a significant amount of police activity” over the last 24 hours.

She said: “The public should be clear about what this means – a threat level of severe means an attack is highly likely. The country should remain vigilant.”

The massacre, in which 22 people were killed, was the worst terrorist atrocity to hit Britain since the July 7 attacks in London in 2005.

The de-escalation came as a street in Manchester’s Moss Side was evacuated by counter-terror officers.

Boscombe Street was said to been cleared on Saturday morning, with one witness describing a bomb-disposal van parked at the junction with Yew Tree Road.

An address in the area was being searched by detectives as they sought to close the net on the suspected terror cell behind Manchester Arena suicide bomber Salman Abedi.

Yamma Wu, 29, said she had been ordered not to leave her house by officers.

“I can see police cars outside the street and they are not allowing people out or in and there is an evacuation in this area, but because I have got a little baby with me they told me I could say inside, but I could not go out,” she told the Press Association.