LONDON: British police were questioning four men yesterday on suspicion of terrorism after a string of arrests that included armed officers shooting out the tyres of a car near the Tower of London.
Reports in British media said the men had been arrested in coordinated raids across London on Sunday night that were aimed at preventing an alleged terror plot involving the use of guns. Police said they were still searching six premises and two vehicles yesterday.
Armed officers arrested two 25-year-old men — one a British national of Turkish origin and the other a Briton of Algerian origin — in a street in east London. A 28-year-old British national of Azerbaijani origin was arrested at a house in Notting Hill, west London, and a 29-year-old Briton of Pakistani origin was arrested in a street in Peckham, southeast London.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said so-called Hatton rounds — special shotgun ammunition used to breach doors and tyres — were “specifically used to disable a car” in the arrests in east London. “They were used to shoot at tyres. No one was injured.”
The arrest took place in a street about 200 metres from the Tower of London, one of London’s busiest tourist attractions. Armed officers were involved in all of the arrests. All four men were being held at a police station in south London on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
AFP
