大象传媒

A former head of the UK National Counter Terrorism Security Office has defended the police for dropping a 2015 investigation into one of the London attackers.

Chris Phillips told reporter Andrew Bomford the police are "spinning lots of plates" and "there's going to be one that falls or one that actually gets thrown in from the side that no one has foreseen".

He said "someone has to make a decision", adding that the attackers could have decided "two hours before the attack happened to do this, what chance would the police have had then of stopping it?".

(Photo: Police officers stand in a line. Credit: Getty Images)