Possible terror risks for Italy from "lone wolves" or self-radicalized: official

On the risk of terror attacks on Italian territory, the main critical issues continue to come from the possible activation of "lone wolves" and "self-starters", or self radicalized people, an Italian official said Monday.

Alessandro Pansa, general director of the Italian Department of Information Security, made the remarks at a press conference to present the 2016 document on security.

According to Italian law, each year the government transmits to the parliament a written report on the information security policy and the results achieved.

The report includes a focus on Jihad in Europe, Pansa said, adding that the terror threat as evidenced not only by the attacks occurred last year, but also by the numerous foiled or failed plans, as well as the growing number of reports about offensive projects.

"There are no signs, elements that suggest a connection between migration flows and the jihadist strategy to infiltrate and send groups of fighting terrorists to the European territories," said Pansa.

"The potential risk remains," he said, adding that services are keeping their guard up.

Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni told reporters that more security does not mean less freedom.

"On the contrary, now to have more security is a condition for continuing to live free, to be able to afford an open society," said Gentiloni.

"Italian citizens can be certain, not of the lack of threats, because we do not ignore them, but of the high quality of work of those who learn about these threats, fight them and prevent them," he added. Endit