MOSCOW, January 9 (Sputnik) — UK authorities have allocated more than 100 million pounds (over $150 million) to monitoring potential "self-starting terrorists," UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne told the BBC on Friday.
"In the last few weeks we have put extra money – over 100 million pounds – into specifically monitoring people who are going to conflicts in Syria and Iraq, these self-starting terrorists who get their ideas off the Internet and then want to perpetrate horrendous crimes," Osborne said.
When asked if the country was ready to tackle attacks like the Wednesday onslaught on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, the chancellor said that the UK government puts an enormous amount of effort into preventing terrorist attacks.
"Of course we have been successful in doing that over the last year," Osborne told the BBC, while stressing the importance of being vigilant.
On Wednesday, the office of Paris-based satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was attacked by gunmen who shot dead 12 people and injured another 11. The two main suspects, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, are currently locked in a building northeast of Paris with one hostage.
