Police foil ‘terrorist knife attack’

A SIGNIFICANT Islamist terror plot to unleash a deadly attack in Britain has been broken up after four men were arrested in east London, counter terrorism officials believe.

Police raided six properties yesterday and disrupted the alleged plot at an early stage of planning.

The unnamed men are understood to have been under investigation for some time and detectives and MI5 officers moved in after finding evidence they were discussing carrying out an atrocity in Britain.

Any attack is not believed to have been imminent. However, investigators feared the plot could have been “significant”.

One source told The Daily Telegraph: “We don’t think there was an imminent risk, but there was a risk to the public.”

Four men aged 18, 24, 25 and 27 were last night being held at a south London police station on suspicion of being involved in “the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, under section 41 Terrorism Act 2000”.

Sources said the alleged plot did not appear to involve a bomb or sophisticated weapons, but was more likely to have been a low-tech attack using knives or vehicles.

Armed officers were not used to arrest the suspects and a police source said the raids had been “low key”.

The operation is the latest in a string of terror raids across the country.

The threat level to the UK has been judged as severe for the past three years, meaning an attack is highly likely.

Last month a 21-year-old woman was shot as counter terrorism officers stormed a home in north-west London.

Rizlaine Boular, 21, was wounded when armed police stormed a flat in the Willesden area on April 27.

Miss Boular, her mother Mina Dich, 43, and their 20-year-old associate, Khawla Barghouthi, have all been charged with terrorism offences and remanded into custody.

That raid came on the same day that terror suspect Khalid Mohammed Omar Ali was arrested just yards from Downing Street carrying three knives.

The 27-year-old has been charged with preparing for a terrorist act.