Bermuda’s insurers and reinsurers should brace itself for more terrorist attacks, according to a US-based industry expert.

Robert Hartwig of the Insurance Information Institute said that it was open whether the weekend terror attacks in Paris which killed 129 people and injured hundreds more were “the first event in a series” which might target Europe or America.

He added: “The question is, and many people believe in the US, it’s not a question of if, it’s a matter of when.”

Dr Hartwig said the impact of the Paris attacks on the industry would be “fairly limited”.

He added: “Unfortunately, the largest casualty here was the individuals, shot, killed and injured as opposed to lots of property damage. This was not an event that produced large scale property damage.

“It’s very difficult in this respect — I don’t expect this event to have any particular effects on property-catastrophe or property liability.

“It will bring some attention to the vulnerability here in the United States.”

He was backed by Bradley Kading, the president and executive officer of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers.

Mr Kading said: “The tragedies in Paris are loss of life and we offer our deepest sympathies to the victims and their families.”

He added that there had been limited insured property loss.

But Mr Kading said: “Terrorism risk will be elevated in the public’s eye, but for insurers it has been elevated since 9/11.

“There is an active, growing terrorism risk insurance market. Businesses should protect themselves with insurance. But the tragedies and loss of life are horrifying for us all.”

Dr Hartwig said that the US Government had this year renewed its terrorism risk insurance programme.

The renewed legislation, first enacted in 2002 after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre the year before, was designed to maintain terrorism insurance market stability, affordability and availability.

The updated provisions in the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) for acts of terrorism certified by Government officials will have a trigger which will gradually increase from the original $100 million to $200 million.

And the industry-wide retention — the amount of losses covered by the industry through deductibles and co-payments — increases to $37.5 million from the previous figure of $27.5 million.

Dr Hartwig said: “Were an event like Paris to occur in the US, there are certain thresholds that would need to be exceeded before federal intervention was considered.”

He added premiums had been coming down, despite the Boston Marathon terrorist bomb attack in 2013.

Dr Hartwig said: “Larger businesses, offices, shopping malls, tend to purchase coverage. Smaller businesses do not.”

And he said: “In the States, the risk is seen as partly insurable. Some events are simply not insurable by the private sector.

“Up to and including a 9/11 event, losses of that magnitude — $35 to $40 billion — would be paid by the private insurance industry.”

The Paris-based French insurer association Fédération Française des Sociétés d’Assurances said that victims of the attack — whether French nationals or not — can claim compensation for attacks on French soil from Le Fonds de Garantie des Victimes des Actes de Terrorismes et d’Autres Infractions,

The country also has a state-backed reinsurer for property losses caused by terrorism, the Gestion de l’Assurance et de la Réassurance des Risques Attentats et Actes de Terrorisme, also based in Paris, which likely will cover any insured property losses stemming from the attacks.