A senior Canadian intelligence official warned Monday that there are domestic terrorists capable of carrying out terror attacks in Canada like the ones on London's transit system in 2005.

"I can tell you that all of the circumstances that led to the London transit bombings . . . are resident here and now in Canada, " Jack Hooper, operations director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, told a Senate committee.

He said in most instances the potential terrorists are Canadian citizens who are very young. "A lot of them were born here. A lot of them who were not born here emigrated to Canada with their parents at a very young age."

Hooper did not give specifics on the estimated numbers of such potential threats or where they were located.

Chairman of the committee Colin Kenny agreed with Hooper, saying the terrorists would have all of the slang and comfort with the culture of native Canadians.

He said it is a huge challenge to the police and the security forces to find them and to have a broad enough net to catch them.

The July 7, 2005 attacks in London killed 52 civilians and four militants. The attackers detonated bombs on three subway cars and one of London's double-decker buses.

Source: Xinhua