Counter-terrorism chief demands eye-scanners at UK borders and 1,500 firearm officers by 2018
Neil Basu unveiled the plans a year after the Paris terror attacks which killed 130 as gunmen and bombers simultaneously opened fire across the city
IRIS scans must be boosted at UK borders to stop extremists, the new anti-terror chief warns.
A rise in the number of guns on the streets of major UK cities has sparked concerns over the gaps in British border security.
Neil Basu, the new senior national co-ordinator for counter-terrorism policing, called for "much more" to be done to tighten security, suggesting an increase in biometric scans, and tamper-proof passports.
He said: "Just in the same way you can smuggle illegal firearms into a country, you can smuggle people into a country. And if one of those happens to be a terrorist, that's a big problem.
"Everybody's identity should be checked as they come through a border in a way that is foolproof.
"Fingerprints, iris scans, the documents need to be tamper-proof."
Mr Basu's comments came a year after the terror atrocity in Paris, in which 130 people were killed when gunmen and bombers simultaneously opened fire in a number of coordinated attacks across the city.
He added: "Paris woke us up to the fact this could be in Europe. And in a major capital city not a couple of hundred miles from our shores, from our own capital city.
"Our heart went out to them, and it was a tremendous 'sit up and think' about how could we respond to something similar.
"What changed our assumptions were the sheer number of attacks and the breadth and spread of the attacks, and our ability to respond as quickly as possible."
Plans have also been put in place to boost the number of trained firearm officers in the UK by around 100 a month, to a total of 1,500 in March 2018.
Policing chiefs are examining potential gaps in armed coverage across the country over fears that officers in rural areas would wait too long for back up.
The armed officers will face "battlefield" conditions as they are trained to leave casualties behind and prioritise shooting terrorist gunmen.
Mr Basu said: "Our firearms officers will go forward, they are trained to stop a terrorist attack. They are not trained to identify it, locate it, contain it, negotiate - they are trained to stop.