Whatever warnings may be issued, it is difficult to think of Cumbria as a potential target for terrorists.

In many ways this is a good thing.

The county has escaped the atrocities which have blighted so many other places in this country and around the world.

Big cities are usually targeted, which is one reason to assume Cumbria remains immune.

This is, of course, a dangerous attitude.

A place where no one expects to be attacked makes an easy target.

Peter McCall, the county's crime commissioner, is right to warn against complacency.

A hole in the county's policing budget is partly due to the armed patrols launched here this summer in the wake of the terror attacks in Manchester and London.

Mr McCall understandably wishes to protect the force's officer numbers.

Armed patrols aim to increase security and boost the public's confidence.

Funding those patrols by cutting the number of officers on our streets would not make a great deal of sense.

Cumbria's Chief Constable Jerry Graham has previously warned that the terror threat is likely to continue indefinitely.

The county's isolated, rural nature has already attracted radical Islamic would-be terrorists to training camps in the Lake District.

Terror could strike anywhere at any time - a terrible truth which terrorists rely on to instil fear.

The line between being cautious and not being constrained by fear is a difficult one to walk.

But that should be the aim in a society facing unpredictable enemies.

As Peter McCall says, "You should always expect the unexpected."