After an explosion killed two people in southwestern England early Sunday, British police said the incident would not be investigated as suspected terrorism, seeking to dispel concerns tied to a recent update to their country’s\u00a0national terrorism threat level<\/span>.<\/p>\n “Given the recent change to the U.K. threat level, we would like to reassure the public from the outset we are not treating this as a suspected terrorist incident,” police said in a\u00a0statement. Government officials had adjusted the threat level to “severe,” up from “substantial,” last week.<\/p>\n The explosion happened at around 6:30 a.m. local time at a residential property in the city of Bristol, according to police. Two adults died as a result, and the cause is being treated as suspicious, they said. A “major incident” was declared, meaning multiple emergency services agencies were involved in the response.<\/p>\n Law enforcement is not searching for anyone else in connection with the incident, police said. They are, however, investigating a different property in a nearby neighborhood with ties to the situation. No details were provided about the potential relationship between that second property and the first.<\/p>\n Police said they have cordoned off an area around the site of the explosion “as a precaution to help keep the public safe.” People living within that area have been temporarily evacuated, although police do not believe the blast caused significant damage to other properties.<\/p>\n The explosion took place as authorities around the United Kingdom grapple with persistent acts of violence, including a spate of\u00a0antisemitic attacks<\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Thursday, the U.K. raised its national terrorism threat level from “substantial” to “severe,” in the wake of a stabbing that wounded two Jewish men in London<\/span> earlier in the week and was formally declared a terror incident. Government officials referenced growing threats of Islamist and extreme right-wing terrorism in the U.K. when they announced the change.<\/p>\n