Europe Sees Record Number of Terror Attacks in 2015
There was a record number of terror attacks carried out, planned or stopped in European Union countries in 2015, according to Europol. The European Union law enforcement agency reported that there were 211 attacks last year, making it the highest year since Europol began recording in 2006, according to the BBC. The figures did not include the recent Nice attack, in which 84 people were killed. The United Kingdom had the highest with 103 attacks, with France following behind with 72 and 25 in Spain. Most of the attacks in the U.K. occurred in Northern Ireland. Europol reported more than 1,000 arrests for terrorism-related offenses, with 424 of those occurring in France, the BBC reports. Most arrests in the E.U. were linked to Jihadists. The report outlined two "worrying developments," the "substantial numbers of returned foreign terrorist fighters that many member states now have on their soil" and a "significant rise" in nationalist or racist sentiments across Europe.