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THE secret services are now monitoring an astonishing 3,000 extremists living in Britain who they fear could become future Jihadi Johns.

Published: 14:01, Sat, February 28, 2015

The secret services are now monitoring 3,000 potential terrorists like Jihadi John

The figure reveals an alarming rise in the number of people now considered potential terrorists who could commit 'lone wolf' attacks either at home or abroad.

Senior sources inside Whitehall revealed security officials are becoming increasingly concerned at the high profile of Islamic State and its use of social media to recruit vulnerable young men in western countries.

The revelation comes in the same week that Londoner Mohammed Emwazi was unmasked as the knife-wielding murderer Jihadi John, who has featured in several propaganda videos for the terrorist group.

In late 2007 the then head of MI5, Jonathan Evans, said that his officers were monitoring around 2,000 individuals they suspected of holding extremist views.

However, high-placed sources have now told the Financial Times that the number of so-called 'subjects of interest' has rocketed to 3,000, largely due to the rise of IS.

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Former head of MI5, Jonathan Evans, said his agents were monitoring 2,000 people in 2007

The officials revealed the would-be terrorists are also becoming harder to track because use of the internet means they are less and less likely to be members of known groups.

Instead, youngsters who are radicalised online are more likely to carry out unpredictable attacks on home soil - a problem one senior security officer described as like trying to follow the random “Brownian motion” of particles in a teapot.

Raffaello Pantucci, director of the respected Royal United Services Institute think-tank which specialises in international security, said that the risk of "lone wolf" attacks on the street of Britain is rising.

He told the Financial Times: “There have always been a lot of people [under watch]. But the perception for a long time was that the numbers had plateaued.

“Now there is a whole new layer on top of that because the noise from Isis in Syria and Iraq is so loud it is attracting others.”

Western governments have been on high alert in recent months following a spate of terrorist attacks in public places.

There are fears that the recent bloody attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris and at a cafe in Copenhagen may inspire others to act, leading to an unbreakable cycle of violence.

Until now, counter-terrorism efforts in Europe have focussed on preventing young men and women from leaving the continent to join up with terror groups in Syria and Iraq.

It is estimated that 3,000 Europeans have travelled to fight as jihadis in the middle east, including more than 500 Britons.

However, emphasis has recently shifted to the wide-spread monitoring of potential home-grown terrorists, who Ukip leader Nigel Farage controversially referred to as a "fifth column".

In Britain, MI5 have been focussing on surveillance of low-level extremists who may not belong to any know groups in response to the 'lone wolf' murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in 2013.

The effort to combat homegrown extremism is known as project Danube, a joint venture between the security services and the Metropolitan Police.

The Home Office last night declined to comment on the figures.