The British security service has identified 30 major terrorist plots being planned in Britain and is tracking more than 1,600 individuals actively engaged in promoting attacks here and abroad, according to local media reports on Friday.

Addressing to a small audience of academics at Queen Mary College in London on Thursday evening, British MI5 Director General Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller said the 30 plots are the most serious of many more planned by some 200 British-based "networks" involved in terrorism, the reports said.

"We are aware of numerous plots to kill people and damage our economy. What do I mean by numerous? Five? Ten? No, nearer thirty -- that we know of," Manningham-Buller said.

"These plots often have links back to Al-Qaida in Pakistan and through those links Al-Qaida gives guidance and training to its largely British foot soldiers here on an extensive and growing scale," she added.

She also said that five further major conspiracies in Britain had been thwarted since the 7 July terror bombings in London in 2005.

"Today, my officers and the police are working to contend with some 200 groupings or networks, totaling over 1,600 identified individuals who are actively engaged in plotting or facilitating terrorist acts here and overseas," she said.

Manningham-Buller warned that the terrorist threat was "serious" and "growing," and would be "with us for a generation."

The number of cases being pursued by security services had risen by 80 percent since January, she said.

"Today we see the use of home-made improvised explosive devices. Tomorrow's threat may include the use of chemicals, bacteriological agents, radioactive materials and even nuclear technology," she said.

"More and more people are moving from passive sympathy towards active terrorism through being radicalized or indoctrinated by friends, families or organized training events here and overseas," she added.

She said television and Internet have played a part in attracting greater numbers of terrorist recruits.

"It is the youth who are being actively targeted, groomed, radicalized and set on a path that frighteningly quickly could end in their involvement in mass murder of their fellow UK citizens," she said.

"Chillingly, we see the results here. Young teenagers groomed to be suicide bombers," she said.

Source: Xinhua