Islamic State 'targeted Armed Forces Day event in UK'

Police have encouraged the public to attend events as normal after it was reported that an Armed Forces Day parade had been targeted by Islamic State (IS).

IS intended to detonate a pressure cooker bomb at a parade in Merton, south London, according to The Sun.

The attack was aimed at killing soldiers from the unit of murdered fusilier Lee Rigby, the newspaper said.

But the newspaper said the plot failed after one of its leaders in Syria unwittingly recruited an undercover investigator from the newspaper to carry it out.

Police and the security services were informed and the planned attack was thwarted, The Sun said.

The Metropolitan Police did not comment directly on The Sun's report, but a spokesperson told ITV News it was "always helpful" when journalists share information that could indicate terrorist activity.

It is alleged that a leading figure in IS, whom it named as Junaid Hussain, originally from Birmingham, told the investigator: "It will be big. We will hit the kuffar (unbelievers) hard InshAllah. Hit their soldiers in their own land. Soldiers that served in Iraq and Afganistan will be present. Jump in the crowd and detonate the bomb.

"They think they can kill Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan then come back to the UK and be safe. We'll hit them hard InshAllah."

The newspaper said the Merton parade was to be targeted because it was closed to the barracks in Woolwich, south-east London, where Fusilier Rigby, 25, was murdered by Islamist extremists in 2013.

A Scotland Yard spokesman told ITV News that the public should attend events as normal.

Hundreds of events marking Armed Forces Day will take place across the country.

This year's national event is in Guildford in Surrey, which the Duke of York will attend.