Five held in swoop by counter-terror officers

COUNTER-TERORISM officers arrested five men in an ‘intelligence-led’ operation which saw raids on five addresses in Luton yesterday.

The men, aged 21, 23, 24, 30 and 35, were all arrested at separate homes yesterday morning and taken to a central London police station for questioning.

Scotland Yard said last night they were being held on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

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A spokesman said: “The arrests were a part of a pre-planned, intelligence-led operation.

“Search warrants were also executed under the Terrorism Act 2000 at five residential addresses in Luton in connection with this inquiry and searches are ongoing.”

Officers stood guard outside an address in Bishopscote Road yesterday as police examined the inside of a semi-detached home.

A short distance away, officers were also guarding a red-brick property in Cornel Close, which neighbours claimed was home to a Pakistani family named Hussain.

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Joyce Nunn, 84, said she believed the eldest son, in his twenties, had been arrested when officers swooped.

Other neighbours said police had raided the property nine months previously.

Self-employed Mohammed Iqbal, who did not give his age, said he believed the man arrested in Bishopscote Road lived with his family.

“I see him passing by sometimes,” he said. “I don’t know him but he seems friendly.”

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