List of terrorist incidents in Great Britain


There have been many motives behind terrorism in Great Britain. During the 20th century, most attacks were carried out by various Irish Republican Army groups and were linked to the Northern Ireland conflict. In the late 20th century there were also isolated attacks by Middle Eastern terrorist groups, though it was still the fact that the vast majority of the attacks were the work of the IRA and allied groups. During the 21st century, however, most terrorist incidents in Britain have been linked to Islamic fundamentalism. An interpretation of this change is that terrorist incidents in Britain may be growing due to Britain's participation in the Iraq War and its role in the Syrian Civil War, as part of a coalition with other Western countries. Polling shows most Britons agree with the theory that their country's actions in Muslim lands provoke blowback in the form of terror attacks.
Since 1970, there have been at least 3,395 terrorist-related deaths in the UK, the highest in western Europe. The vast majority of the deaths were linked to the Northern Ireland conflict and happened in Northern Ireland. Between 1971 and 2001, there were 430 terrorist-related deaths in Great Britain. Of these, 125 deaths were linked to the Northern Ireland conflict, and 305 deaths were linked to other causes – most of the latter deaths occurred in the Lockerbie bombing. Since 2001, there have been almost 100 terrorist-related deaths in Great Britain, the vast majority linked to Islamic jihad and religious extremism.

Great Britain

Pre-19th century

1190, 17 March: Massacre of Jews, York

19th century

From January 1939 to March 1940, the Irish Republican Army carried out a campaign of bombing and sabotage against the civil, economic, and military infrastructure of Britain. It was known as the S-Plan or Sabotage Campaign. During the campaign, the IRA carried out almost 300 attacks and acts of sabotage in Britain, killing seven people and injuring 96. Most of the casualties occurred in the Coventry bombing on 25 August 1939.

1970s

These are known attacks which could have constituted a threat to life had they worked or been large enough. Does not include attacks that were merely at a talking stage and were not actually in operation.

Given the nature of counter-terrorism, successes in preventing terrorist attacks in the UK will not always come to light, or not be as heavily promoted as intelligence failures. However, during the police advocacy of 90-day detention in relation to the Terrorism Act 2006 they produced documents listing all the cases about which they could not go into details.
Authorities often state, without going into details, numbers of attacks prevented, e.g. 12 attacks were reported in March 2017 to have been thwarted in the previous year, some only hours before they were to have been attempted.

Arrests, detentions, and other incidents related to the Terrorism Acts

These are cases where either the Terrorism Acts were invoked, or which the authorities alleged were terrorist in nature at the time. This list includes both plots that were foiled at an early stage before any materials were actually assembled, and totally innocent suspects.