Armed police hold 18-year-old over terrorist plot

♦ A teenager has been arrested by armed police on suspicion of preparing to carry out a terrorist act.

The 18-year-old was detained shortly after midnight in a north London street by officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command.

It is understood the arrest was not connected with any alleged plot to disrupt this weekend’s royal wedding.

The teenager was taken to a south London police station for questioning.

The arrest comes just days after the head of MI5 warned of the “intense” and “unrelenting” terrorist threat facing the UK and its European allies.

Revealing that police and the security services have thwarted 12 Islamist plots since the Westminster atrocity in March last year, Andrew Parker said the “unprecedented tempo” of attack-planning in Britain shows no signs of abating. Cressida Dick, the Met commissioner, said of the 12 foiled plots: “They are all ones where the security services assess that, if we had not intervened when we did, there would have been a lethal attack. Some have been closer than others. Some of them have been very close to the ghastly moment.”