Vladimir Putin's spies are feared to have planted a device on a plane (Image: Getty)
Russian spies are feared to have planted a device on a plane that sparked a fire in a British warehouse.
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Counter-terrorism police are investigating a blaze at a DHL warehouse in Birmingham amid fears of a growing number of Kremlin-sponsored sabotage plots.
Nobody was injured in the fire, in July, before it was put out.
But a similar incident in Leipzig, Germany, has sparked fears it is part of a wider Russian campaign to carry out arson and sabotage plots in Europe.
This is primarily to weaken military support for Ukraine and divide the West, it is understood.
MI5 Director General Ken McCallum warned of growing Russian sabotage plots (Image: PA)
A Metropolitan police counter-terrorism spokesperson said: “We can confirm that officers from counter-terrorism policing are investigating an incident at a commercial premises in Midpoint Way, Minworth.
“On Monday 22 July, a package at the location caught alight. It was dealt with by staff and the local fire brigade at the time and there were no reports of any injuries or significant damage caused.
“Officers are liaising with other European law enforcement partners to identify whether this may or may not be connected to any other similar-type incidents across Europe.”
Seven men were charged over a suspected Russian plot when a warehouse in east London belonging to a company linked to Ukraine caught fire in a suspected arson attack in March.
Logistics company DHL said the package that started burning in Germany was originally posted from Lithuania.
It was moments away from being loaded into a plane, which could have triggered a catastrophe, German intelligence chiefs warned.
MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said Russia and Iran are on a mission to cause “mayhem” with an increase in arson, murder, kidnap and sabotage conspiracies.
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The threat Moscow poses on Britain’s streets is “getting worse”, he warned.
Mr McCallum said Russia’s GRU intelligence agency, which was responsible for the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury in 2018, is behind the "sustained mission", adding that Putin’s “henchmen” are ramping up arson and sabotage operations across Europe “in the misguided hope of weakening Western resolve”.
Britain’s top intelligence officer said Russia and Iran are hiring criminals to carry out their “dirty work” and acting with “increasing recklessness”.
At least 24 alleged saboteurs have been arrested so far this year after being recruited by Russian spy chiefs.
A wave of fires at arms factories and military-related industrial sites in the West has alarmed intelligence chiefs. Suspected plots have been detected in London, Germany, the Czech Republic and Sweden.
Mr McCallum, speaking at the Counter Terrorism Operations Centre in west London on Tuesday, said: "In just the last year, the number of state threat investigations we’re running has shot up by 48 percent.
“The more eye-catching shift this year has been Russian state actors turning to proxies for their dirty work, including private intelligence operatives and criminals from both the UK and third countries.
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“While altering MI5’s detection challenge, Russia’s use of proxies further reduces the professionalism of their operations, and – absent diplomatic immunity – increases our disruptive options.”
Britain should "expect to see continued acts of aggression here at home" from Russia.