Thirteen arrested in terror raids in UK

From the BBC:

Thirteen men have been arrested under the Terrorism Act after raids in London and three English counties. The arrests were made in north-west London, Hertfordshire, Luton in Bedfordshire and Blackburn, Lancashire.

Police said the men, aged in their 20s and 30s, were suspected of involvement in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. Officers from the Met's Anti-Terrorist branch were backed by local forces in the "intelligence-led, pre-planned" operation.

Another neighbour, who did not wish to be named, told BBC News Online she had seen a number of officers, some in flak jackets and others in plain clothes. She said the men had been dressed by police in white paper suits and their hands and feet covered with plastic bags before they were driven away.Resident Pearl Bernasconi told the BBC she had seen forensic officers pore over the car from which the suspects were pulled. Several nearby roads were closed while investigations were carried out.

news.bbc.co.uk...

Not sure if this is linked to the new info from Pakistan or not. Too early to say.

[edit on 3-8-2004 by rangeroftheeast]

Blackburn? Hmm.. they give the road in the article and it's about 10 minutes from my place. I'll shoot down there with my camera now and see what's up. Back soon!!

Originally posted by muppet
Blackburn? Hmm.. they give the road in the article and it's about 10 minutes from my place. I'll shoot down there with my camera now and see what's up. Back soon!!

Our roving reporter!

Originally posted by rangeroftheeast
Our roving reporter!

- Hmm, I wonder if it'll end up like the last little drama. Lots of arrests and questioning but everyone lifted released and no charges......and when the grounds for the Police activity became known rather a lot of egg on the Polices' faces.

A plot to attack a sports ground was based entirely on one of the (later released) suspects having a ticket stub from going to a game there some time beforehand.

I know the Police have a difficult job to do and mistakes will inevitably get made but there are times when the security alert seems to be very dodgy.

Just posted to the other thread.

Nothing to report or show though. I just drove the length of Preston Old Rd twice, and no sign of any activity at all. Not even a single police car/van or anything. I checked all the side streets too, but nothing.

Not even a single house with activity going on around it. Have they all been and gone? maybe they reported the wrong road?

If we get more info about the location, I can go have a look.

I guess UK is not behind in the terrorist scares, been such a close or the closes friend the US have.

Wow this is on ATS already lol....

I live only minuits away from one of the arrests, there was a big police chase and they shut down the whole road checked all the cars then found a guy laying in a bush, then arrested him under the terror act,

Wish i had my camera phone!!

Originally posted by marg6043
I guess UK is not behind in the terrorist scares, been such a close or the closes friend the US have.

I guess so. the reports aren't clear yet if there was any immediate threat as such, or whether thy are suspected of planning something.

Originally posted by asala
I live only minuits away from one of the arrests, there was a big police chase and they shut down the whole road checked all the cars then found a guy laying in a bush, then arrested him under the terror act,

Wish i had my camera phone!!

Yeah.. I'm beginning to see their uses. We could have scooped this! Aparently the Blackburn raid was this afternoon, although it didn't make the local 6pm BBC radio news... if only I'd known.. I had my camera in the car!

Originally posted by muppet
Blackburn? Hmm.. they give the road in the article and it's about 10 minutes from my place.

Yeah the place where it happened is about 2 minutes away from me. Do you live in Blackburn as well muppet?

I cant believe theirs so many Blackburnians on ATS



This does not surprise me Blackburn has the largest percentage of Muslims in the UK. Some of the Islamic colleges have in the past been linked to extremism. I live in the revidge area and by all accounts the arrests took place on preston old road so not to far away!!!!

Im surprised the arrests took place in a car though. If the police had infomation that these 2 guys were terrorists I would have thought that they would have followed them to their destination and then raided there.


Ive got a lot of friends in the Islamic community Im going to give some a ring to see if they no any more.


Cheers


Debaser

LOL another one!!! I'm on meins rd!

yup, the arrests were in Cherry Tree, near the bottom of Green Lane. The car was headed in towards town.

Apparently they're searching a couple of houses in Blackburn right now (heard on news,) but no indication where. They had a bit of a news blackout apparently. My camera is in the car though in case I spot anything!

I live on woodbine

we should meet for a pint lol

its on the bbc now that houses are being searched

they are being held on suspicion of preperation

i bet they will be linked to one of the colleges in blackburn

www.sky.com...

Seems they have been making major focus around Blackburn,

Also somene caught all the Action on there mobile! and sent it to Skynews

People living near the different homes have been talking about the raids they witnessed.

In Blackburn, Tincie Hill saw officers surround a gold Mercedes.

"Both of the men in the car were Asian. The driver had a beard. "The passenger was laid in the gutter with two policemen with guns trained on him. The driver was on his knees at the back of the car with guns pointing at him as well."

In Luton, witnesses said an Asian man was pulled from his car by seven armed police officers.

Leigh Mayes said officers carrying semi-automatic machine-guns, held the man against his maroon hatchback for nearly three hours while forensic teams carried out searches.

Also somene caught all the Action on there mobile!

Yeah that was quick thinknig on his part. I know the guy actually, hes a mate of mine, we used to go to the same secondary school.

Well, I chanced upon one of these terror raids on the way home from work, the same afternoon the other raids took place.

Location: NW London, Harrow Road, very close to the William the Fourth pub in Kensal Green. Every road around the area was gridlocked due to the Harrow Road being cordened off. There was a large number of police presence, including some with automatic weapons. At first I thought it was something to do with the heavy rains we were having, then realised, guns wouldn't help much in those circumstances.

Unfortunately, my phone had run out of charge so was unable to capture anything.

[edit on 5-8-2004 by Koka]

UPDATE.

Nine released without charge and handed to immigration officials, another handed to border control and only 2 left in custody. Is this turning into another blatantly politically motivated fiasco?

www.timesonline.co.uk...