More than 7,500 people were referred to the British government’s Prevent programme in 2015-16 over concerns that they were at risk of being drawn into terrorism, with almost two-thirds of referrals relating to alleged Islamist extremism, Home Office data shows.

The statistics published on Thursday revealed referrals over Islamist extremism concerns included 1,504 children under the age of 15.

A further 1,378 people aged between 15 and 20 were also referred for Islamist extremism.

Referrals relating to Islamist extremism concerns totalled 4,997 (65 percent) out of 7,631 cases between April 2015 and March 2016.