DEVON and Cornwall police's most senior police officer said he is "certain" the country will experience another terror attack.

Stephen Otter, Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, added that he does not believe the force could have prevented the terror attack on Exeter.

Speaking about the Government's anti-terrorism campaign, he said it was "extremely difficult" to know what is in people's minds in order to stop an attack happening.

"The most difficult part about terrorism is preventing attacks," he said.

"Trying to prevent terrorism emerging is extremely difficult. We saw that with the Reilly case.

"It would have been hugely difficult to prevent that. People live their own lives and we don't know what is in their minds.

"I don't think we could have seen the attack on Exeter coming.

"What we have learnt is that there is a process, which we were unaware of, that leads to someone doing something like this.

"That is helpful for the whole country."

Mr Otter said the threat of terrorism was still "very real".

"We are certain that something like this unfortunate incident will happen again somewhere," he said.

He added: "I was really proud of our officers, I was also proud of being part of a community that took that ground so quickly.

"There was no sense of terror reigning across Exeter, people were going back to that restaurant within a month, that is real testament to the people here."