Police have thwarted an alleged imminent terror plot in England with a number of Iranian nationals arrested amid concern about the growing level of Tehran-backed hostile activity in the UK.
Five suspects, including four Iranians, were arrested as part of a suspected plan to target “specific premises”, the Metropolitan police said. Of those arrested, the nationality of the fifth was still being established.
In a separate investigation, three Iranian nationals were detained in London on suspicion of being involved in threat activity on behalf of Iran, though police said the two sets of high-profile arrests were not linked.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, described the arrests as “two major operations” that reflected some of the biggest threats “we have seen in recent years” – and while she did not comment directly on whether the incidents were linked to the Iranian state, she noted “it involves Iranian nationals in both investigations”.
Investigators from counter-terrorism police and the domestic security service, MI5, feared any planned attack might have taken place soon. Scotland Yard did not reveal the alleged target but it was understood to be in the UK.
Three of those arrested were held in the Manchester area, with another arrested in west London and a fifth in Swindon. Hundreds of officers across the country were involved in the operation.
Police on Sunday said they were still not sure any risk had been wholly contained, with detectives investigating whether the plot had overseas involvement.
Scotland Yard said the five men in the first operation, including four Iranians, were being questioned under section 5 of the Terrorism Act on suspicion of planning an attack.
Commander Dominic Murphy, the head of the Metropolitan police’s counter-terrorism command, said: “The investigation is still in its early stages and we are exploring various lines of inquiry to establish any potential motivation as well as to identify whether there may be any further risk to the public linked to this matter.”
Murphy urged the public to “remain vigilant” and alert the police if they saw anything suspicious.
The nature of the plot was not publicly known but security services have warned about the growing threat from Iran-backed criminals.
In the second operation, two Iranian nationals were arrested in north-west London and a third in west London on Saturday. They were arrested and detained under section 27 of the National Security Act 2023, which criminalises anybody involved in “foreign power threat activity”, in this case from Iran.
Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, said in October that Tehran was behind “plot after plot” in the UK and that it had uncovered five new planned attacks last year, taking the total since January 2022 to 20. Officers were giving their fullest attention to any increase in “Iranian state aggression in the UK”, he added.
Footage verified by the Guardian showed armed military personnel storming a terraced property alongside specialist firearms officers in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, as they arrested a 40-year-old man.
Marksmen carrying semi-automatic rifles and wearing helmets and body armour could be seen in the footage removing a partly clothed man from the building in handcuffs before ordering him to the ground.
Another man, also an Iranian, was arrested by armed officers near a busy children’s play area in an affluent suburb of Stockport, leaving residents shaken.
“It’s terrifying,” said Sarah Cash, 49, who was told by police she could not collect her son from the play area in Cheadle Heath where the arrest was conducted on Saturday evening.
Cash said she was concerned about the alleged target of the attack – which police have not disclosed for operational reasons – and whether there was still any risk: “Where is that premises? There’s so many big things around here – there’s Manchester airport, the Co-op Arena.”
Images from the scene showed a number of masked officers along the tree-lined street where the suspect was detained outside a £12,000-a-year preparatory school.
In Rochdale, neighbours of the 40-year-old Iranian man who was arrested said they were “really terrified” as heavily armed officers swooped on the quiet terraced street shortly before 6pm on Saturday.
Amy Openshaw, 36, said her five-year-old daughter was playing in their garden with her six- and nine-year-old nieces when they ran inside saying “masked men” had told them to get in the house.
She said: “As a mum you think: what do you mean masked men in my garden? We heard a big bang. It sounded like a bomb had gone off – it was well loud. It ricocheted through the house.”
Another neighbour, who lives three doors down, said she did not know the Iranian man but believed he lived in the house with three or four others.
“It was really terrifying,” she said. “It’s a house that homes vulnerable people. You just see them coming and going all the time.”
Of the moment police raided the property, she added: “I heard the bang but I felt the bang at the same time. I ran upstairs. I just saw a flood of people run past my window. There were people with guns pointing towards the end house.”
Source: theguardian.com
