THE carnage on our screens last week in Paris was impossible to comprehend, and still is.

What sort of people could behave in such a barbaric way and then blow themselves up when cornered?

I have experienced religious hatred and intolerance myself when serving in Northern Ireland, but our opponents never sought martyrdom, giving us at least a fighting chance of surviving an attack.

The innocent Parisians, however, had no chance at all, and hundreds were mercilessly gunned down in the name of Islam. IS described their outrage on western “crusaders” as “the first of the storm”. Their statement is worth reading, if only to confirm there’s no appeasing these self-styled “soldiers of the Caliphate”.

Simultaneous attacks on several targets are designed to cause terror and confusion. They’re also extremely hard to counter. Soberingly, the security services have prevented seven attacks here in the UK in the past year, while their officers monitor 1,000 suspects a day.

Spying on this sort of scale takes huge resources and the announcement that MI5 is to recruit nearly 2,000 more spies shows the pressure they’re under. Our special forces will also benefit from the extra £2billion.

On Tuesday, I asked the Prime Minister whether we had sufficient armed police offices in all our cities.

My point was that, in the event of a killing spree, we need officers who are sufficiently trained and armed to storm a building within minutes. My suspicion is that we don’t have enough.

Meanwhile, we must remain defiant by ensuring that life goes on as normal. Regrettably, Despite the heroic efforts of those trying to protect us, one attack will inevitably get through.

We must be prepared for this eventuality.