As many as 250 terrorists trained by Osama bin Laden are now free in Britain, a former British police chief warned in an article for a Sunday newspaper.

Sir John Stevens, who retired as chief of London's Metropolitan Police recently, said in an article for the News of the World that the terrorists were ready to die for their cause and could strike at any moment.

Stevens said he believed it was vital that the country's new Prevention of Terrorism Act was enacted as soon as possible.

The Prevention of Terrorism Act, which scraped through the Commons by just 14 votes, will face further opposition when it comes to the committee stage in the House of Lords next week.

The act is intended to introduce control orders for terrorist suspects enabling the authorities to impose curfews, tagging, banson telephone and Internet use, as well as house arrest in the most serious cases.

Stevens said that any delay in enacting the law "can only give comfort to the terrorists in our midst waiting to attack us".

The main opposition to the act, he said, "was from people who simply haven't understood the brutal reality of the world we live in and the true horror of the terrorism we face."

He said that there were small networks of militants who had been trained by Osama bin Laden and had "spawned and continue to fester" in British towns and cities.

Source: Xinhua