VISITOR numbers plummeted at some of London’s most popular tourist attractions last year because of fears the city “might be next” for a terror attack, an industry leader said.

The British Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum welcomed more than a million fewer people in total in 2016 compared with the previous year.

Attractions across London as a whole saw an overall increase of just 0.1 per cent, whereas the UK average growth across 241 sites was 7.2 per cent, including 15.6 per cent in Scotland.

Bernard Donoghue, director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva), which published the figures, said attacks in Brussels, Paris and Nice had made some people reluctant to visit major cities.

He said: “There were some security fears about central London and city centre attractions, both on the part of overseas visitors and also UK domestic families.We did see a displacement out of central London for some people going to visitor attractions.

“Whilst there were some terrorism attacks on mainland continental Europe, there was also some concern among overseas visitors that London might be next.”