Islamist lockdown plot foiled by police in joint armed raids

From the Telegraph and local newspapers Essex Live and the Barking and Dagenham Post

Armed police have foiled an lslamist lockdown terror plot after carrying out raids on addresses in east London and Leicester.

Four men, aged between 17 and 32, were arrested after police stormed three homes in coordinated raids on Thursday afternoon.

Residents in the Goodhayes Park area of Ilford were alerted to the raids when a series of loud flash grenades were detonated by police as they entered a flat in Green Lane.

At least a dozen loud bangs were heard, which locals thought were gunshots, but Scotland Yard said no shots had been fired during the operation.

A 27-year-old man who was inside the property was taken to police after being bitten by a police dog during the raid.

Neighbours were told to stay indoors because the police dog was on the loose as the arrest took place. Word on the street is that the dog is recovering well from it’s ordeal.

Elsewhere, a teenager and a 31-year-old man were detained at a property in another part of east London and a 32-year-old was arrested at an address in Leicestershire.

All four were arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism under section 41 of the Terrorism Act (TACT) 2000 and remain in police custody at this time.

Details of the intended target were not revealed, but sources confirmed it was an Islamist plot, which had been planned during lockdown. The plot was not thought to involve explosives, but the proactive police operation was ordered amid fears that the group was ready to act imminently.

I know Green Lane. The flats in the photograph above are next to the expanding Al Noor Primary school. At the other end of the shopping centre is the mosque of the Becontree Heath Islamic Society about the conversion of which  the EDL protested several times, unsuccessfully, nearly 10 years ago.  and again. The authorities can’t say that they were not warned.