Teachers are to be trained how to spot potential terrorists before the youngsters become radicalised.

They will be taught alongside doctors and nurses to recognise vulnerable people who could be turned to terror.

Council bosses are concerned that if potential extremists are not rooted out at a young age they could go on to kill They believe Sussex’s health and education experts could be a key weapon in their war on homegrown terrorism.

The proposals from West Sussex County Council will be discussed on Wednesday – just as it emerged that another suspected terrorist from Crawley was quizzed for a week in a London police station.

In the report to WSCC’s public protection select committee, Richard Perry, the council’s director of operations for community services, and Jeff Fullard, head of community safety, proposed that some of the £121,000 of funding received from the Home Office should be used to train professionals to “raise awareness of hate crime and culture awareness”.

Mr Perry said: “Since the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the United Kingdom has faced a severe threat from international terrorism. While West Sussex is considered a safe and pleasant place to live and work and there is no reason to think that residents of West Sussex are more likely to display radicalised tendencies here than anywhere else, we cannot ignore the risk.

“To this end it is therefore proposed to develop a strategy that focuses preventative activity in a measured way on a wide range of institutions, schools, colleges and health-based establishments.”

Their proposals include ensuring a wide range of employees, including doctors, health care professionals and teachers, receive the training over the next 18 months.

The report also suggests that the risks which could be faced if the area of work is not adopted could include: “Radicalisation of extremist views among vulnerable people; social exclusion and discrimination not being combated; anxieties and grievances within communities not being dealt with, which could lead to tensions.”

Peter Evans, lead councillor for public protection for WSCC, said: “This is part of an overall strategy that the Government is asking to be employed throughout the UK.

“This impacts on WSCC through our community safety partnership, which is ideally placed to help develop the ‘Perform’ part of the strategy, which is really there to counter the problems that we face in society now with various groups throughout the country.

“Nowadays we are looking at extremism and that can be both religious and also against the state.

“This is to counter that and to train people and make them aware of the problems that can come up and divide society.”

The spectre of terrorism has loomed over West Sussex for ten years. In April 2008, Simon Keeler, 36, from Crawley, became the first white British Muslim to be convicted of terrorism. He was jailed for four-and-a-half years for inciting terrorism overseas and terrorist fundraising.

In May 2007 three Muslim men who grew up and worshipped in Crawley were sentenced to life in prison for plotting to commit mass murder.

Omar Khyam and Jawad Akbar, who attended Hazelwick School in Three Bridges, Crawley, worshipped alongside terror plotter Waheed Mahmood at the town’s Langley Green Mosque.

But their interest in radical Islam came from the preachings of extremist group al-Muhajiroun, who use Crawley as a recruiting ground.

They were all convicted of scheming to blow up a nightclub and a shopping centre with a massive bomb made from fertiliser.

After their conviction school friends expressed surprise that men who had been interested in normal activities, including football and cricket, could become radicalised.

Laura Moffatt, MP for Crawley, said she was “very supportive of this preventative work” and said the whole community had responded with “enormous dignity” to the town’s sad association with the terror plotters.

She added: “It is always very difficult to try and express just what the threat might be, so it is difficult work to do.

“Crawley Borough Council has also received some funding to work with students outside of school and in my briefings with the local authorities I am utterly convinced this is worthwhile.”

A spokeswoman for the BMA, which represents doctors, said: “Staff on the front line need to be trained.

“Increased vigilance is something we would not be opposed to.”

A 27-year-old man from Crawley was detained at Gatwick on March 18 as he tried to leave the country.

He was later arrested and taken to a London police station for questioning. A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed an address in Crawley was searched as part of the investigation. The man has since been released without charge.