EU warns of a chilling new terror menace 25 years after 9/11 as online youths seek violent thrills

BRUSSELS (AP) — A quarter of a century after the Al-Qaeda attacks on the United States, jihadist groups still pose a major threat to security in Europe, but a new menace has surfaced that is driven mostly by young people online and the authorities are worried. The exact size of the network behind what is being called nihilistic violent extremism is unclear. But police investigators from nine European countries found about 4,340 URL web addresses linked to “The COM,” as the online community has become known, during a campaign to disrupt it in June and July.

“It’s violence for the sake of violence,” European Union Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Bartjan Wegter told The Associated Press in an interview, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001. Overall last year, 45 terrorist attacks were reported across 10 of the 27 EU countries, although none of them were major, mass-casualty incidents.

About half were foiled or failed, but six people were killed. A total of 486 people suspected of terror links were arrested in 21 member countries, according to the EU police agency Europol. Jihadist groups — often guided or inspired by networks outside Europe — were behind 24 of the attacks and accounted for more than 70% of the arrests.

Of all those taken into custody, around one third were aged under 18, mostly boys. Europol does not keep statistics on nihilistic violent extremism because definitions of it differ and acts can fall into the category of ordinary criminality as well as terrorism. But in Finland in 2025, a 16-year-old boy stabbed three female student colleagues.

He allegedly shared a “manifesto” in WhatsApp groups, recorded the attack on Snapchat, and asked on social media for someone to save and give him the video after his release. In the “manifesto,” he said that he wanted to do something “significant” and “exciting.” No political motive was given for his rampage, according to an EU document on the emerging threat of nihilistic extremist violence. Violence as a form of entertainment “It’s very much a fascination with violence.

It’s violence as a means of asserting oneself, as a means of gaining status in those online communities,” Wegter told AP. “There’s not a direct link with ideology.” In Italy last year, a 15-year-old boy planned a murder to gain notoriety online, authorities there said. 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.Overall last year, 45 terrorist attacks were reported across 10 of the 27 EU countries, although none of them were major, mass-casualty incidents.