Four men are in police custody after being arrested in London as part of a pre-planned anti-terror operation.
Counter-terrorism police detained the men at 7.10pm on Sunday during raids on addresses across the capital.
A statement from the Metropolitan Police said the men were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Two 25-year-old men were detained in Mansell Street, east London. A 28-year-old man was arrested in Westbourne Grove, west London.
The fourth man – aged 29 – was detained in Peckham Street, southeast London.
Officers conducted a search of six addresses as part of the pre-planned operation.
“These searches are ongoing. Two vehicles are also being searched,” said a police spokesman.
“Officers from the MPS Firearms Unit were involved in these arrests. Public safety remains our overriding concern.”
A man who witnessed the arrest on Westbourne Grove – a street lined with restaurants and shops in Notting Hill – said he saw two police vans and a police car at the scene.
He said: “There was quite a lot of police. There was quite a scene as I approached.”
Sometimes these arrests are made as a pre-emptive measure very early on in any planning for a terrorism operation, and sometimes they are made because the feeling is a terrorist attack may be imminent.
But S015 officers, from Counter Terrorism Command, and armed Met Police officers were involved, so it certainly was a big operation by the Met.
