Terrorism related arrests, attacks and deaths

The number of terrorist attacks per year in the EU increased from 152 to 211 between 2013 and 2015 (including foiled, failed and completed attacks), while the number of persons arrested on terrorism related charges doubled for the same period (see figure 3). A total of 151 persons were killed in terrorist attacks in 2015. Although the majority of perpetrators of these attacks were EU citizens, many had links with terrorist organisations from outside the EU, and some entered the EU irregularly by exploiting weaknesses in EU external borders. According to Europol, the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris had links to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, while a number of the suspects involved in the November 2015 Paris attacks had previously travelled to and been trained in Syria.