UK to hire more spies to counter terror threat

The British Prime Minister David Cameron has unveiled London’s plans to hire some 1,900 more spies in a bid to counter terror threats against the country.

“Our security and intelligence services have stopped something like seven attacks in the last six months albeit attacks planned on a smaller scale. That’s one of the reasons we are strengthening the security and intelligence services,” Cameron said on Monday.

The boost will see the total number of spying staff at MI5, MI6 and GCHQ increase from nearly 12,700 to 14,600 or by 15%.

Cameron also said the British government plans to more than double spending on aviation security which already costs 9 million pound a year.

The “step change”, which will take effect within five years, comes in the wake of the crash of a Russian airliner over Sinai in Egypt last month which claimed 224 lives.

The UK and US say the jet was brought down by a bomb.

The ISIL terrorist group has already claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.

Russian authorities have not ruled out the possibility of a terrorist attack, saying they are investigating the incident.

Earlier on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the official investigation into the crash is in its final stage.