A new report released this week will warn that right-wing extremists inflict more fatalities and injuries than Islamist terrorists in “lone actor” attacks.
The report, from the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London, says that 94 people were killed and 260 injured in attacks carried out by right-wing extremists across Europe between the start of 2000 and the end of 2014.
That compares with 16 deaths and 65 injuries caused by religiously inspired lone wolf attacks.
The think tank says right-wing extremists represent a “substantial” threat to the public, and warns that security agencies are less effective at detecting right-wing extremists than they are at catching religiously motivated terrorists and that intelligence “may currently be more finely tuned” to foiling Islamist plots.
It says the findings have “clear implications” for policy makers and law enforcement and adds: “Right-wing extremists represent a substantial aspect of the lone actor threat and must not be overlooked.”
The report, which will be unveiled at an event in London tomorrow, has been compiled following months of analysis of terrorist plots and attacks across the European Union’s 28 member states plus Norway and Switzerland and comes only days after the killing of Labour MP Jo Cox.
