POLICE and courts are to be handed new powers to target suspects believed to be plotting mass killings, it was reported today.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the powers would enable the criminal justice system to “close the gap” between terror suspects, who can be jailed for life for planning attacks, and individuals who are not driven by a particular ideology.

She said the legislation would mirror existing laws that permit police to arrest terror suspects for preparatory actions — such as conducting research — a power currently unavailable without links to an ideological cause

Ms Cooper told BBC Radio 4’s State of Terror series: “There is a gap in the law around the planning of mass attacks that can be just as serious (as terrorism) in their implications for communities, their impact, the devastation that they can cause and the seriousness of the crime.

“We will tighten legislation so that that is taken as seriously as terrorism.”