ISIS 'highly likely' to attack the London Underground

ISIS militants returning to the UK could launch a chlorine gas attack on trains, the London Underground or at a football match, according to a chemical weapons expert.

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commanding officer at the Joint Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Regiment, said the last two weeks in Syria and Iraq have seen the "most concentrated and deadly use of chemical weapons" since the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.

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"It is very evident that ISIS are putting much time and effort into training its jihadis in the use of chlorine as a terror weapon and in particular in IEDs (improvised explosive devices)," he wrote on 2Paragraphs.

"Virtually every foreign jihadi who returns to the US or UK will have been exposed to training of this sort and will have a reasonable idea on how to use chlorine and other toxic chemicals as a terror weapon.

"In the UK at least, up to 90 tonnes of chlorine can be purchased without any licences required."

After returning from advising security forces in Baghdad last week, he told the Daily Mirror he feared a chlorine gas attack was "highly likely", adding: "This could happen on a train or tube or even at a big football match."

De Bretton-Gordon examined the likelihood of such an atrocity on the 20-year anniversary of the Tokyo subway sarin attack, which killed 12 people and injured more than 1,000 more, causing chaos in the Japanese capital. Japan's emergency services treat commuters after the gas attack which saw the army decontaminate Tokyo's subway cars Japan's emergency services treat commuters after the gas attack which saw the army decontaminate Tokyo's subway cars

The Aum Shinrikyo movement used packets of the nerve agent, which they punctured with umbrella tips on the Tokyo subway during morning rush hour.

But de Bretton-Gordon said less complicated methods would be needed for a deadly chlorine attack.

The expert, who has recently worked with UK-based charity Syria Relief advising civilians on what to do in a chlorine gas attack, founded chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence firm SecureBio and is a director at gas mask manufacturers Avon Protection.