Intel failures

Questions for French security services after it emerges three major intelligence failures may have let the killers get through 

French intelligence and security services had been reorganised in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacres, which left 16 dead in January. It emerged that the brothers behind the killings, Cherif and Said Kouachi, were well known to the authorities and were being watched – but surveillance was called off just six months before they launched their attack.

Since then counter-terrorist forces say they have thwarted several plots and in August passengers overpowered a gunman who opened fire on a high-speed train bound for Paris.

But it is feared there was a fatal breakdown in communication between European law enforcement agencies earlier this month. During a routine check of a VW Golf on the Salzburg to Munich autobahn on November 5, police discovered a ‘professionally built’ secret compartment crammed with weaponry and munitions.