Armed police are on Saturday, September 16, 2017 afternoon raiding a house in Surrey hours after arresting the 18-year-old man believed to have planted the Parsons Green station bomb in London’s Underground Tube.
One nearby resident told MailOnline that officers had found a bomb at the site in Sunbury-on-Thames after ‘around 60 people’ were evacuated from their homes.
Earlier today police apprehended a suspect in the ‘port area’ of Dover as it was thought he was attempting to flee the country.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd described the arrest as ‘very significant’, but added: ‘The operation is ongoing.’
The suspect was taken to a local police station and will be transferred to south London during the course of the day, officers said.
It comes after the Prime Minister last night announced Britain’s terror threat has been raised to its highest level amid fears the bombing could inspire copycat attacks.
The raid in Surrey took place at a residential address just before 2pm this afternoon.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: ‘Residents in the buildings immediately surrounding the address are also being evacuated as a precautionary measure.
‘Cordons are being put in place at a 100 metre radius to facilitate the Metropolitan Police Service’s operation, which is being supported by colleagues from Surrey Police.
‘A search of the address is ongoing and the cordons will remain in place until the operation is complete.’
Sunbury-on-Thames is just a 37-minute train journey from Wimbledon station, where the tube that was bombed yesterday began its journey.
Security minister Ben Wallace said today the threat level has been raised to critical because a new attack is likely to be ‘imminent’ as an increased presence of armed officers was seen in cities across the country.
Speaking before news broke of the arrest this morning the politician said that the Government and security services were using all their resources to track down ‘the individual or individuals’ responsible for the bombing.
But he piled the pressure on police for not releasing CCTV footage of the attacker, describing it as a ‘useful’ tool in identifying suspects.
He said on BBC Radio 4’s Today show this morning: ‘I totally agree that CCTV footage is useful but that part of the investigation I leave with the police and security services.’
Mojgan Jamali, who lives on the road where the house was raided this afternoon, said police gave her just ‘one minute’ to pack her bags, grab her children, and leave her home.
She said: ‘We didn’t know what was going on. There was a lot of rumours going on, a lot of stories, people saying this and that, but we didn’t know.’
Another neighbour, who did not wish to be named, told MailOnline police vehicles swooped on the street as she was making her way to a local Tesco store.
‘We thought it was a drug raid, but the police would not tell us anything.
‘We tried driving around but they had blocked of part of the road and they said that we really need to go right down [to the other end of the road].
‘When I was leaving they were knocking on all the doors. A police sergeant told us that they had found an explosive device.’
Across the country Operation Temperer, brought into force again in response to the raised terror threat, will see soldiers replacing police at key sites including nuclear power plants to free up extra armed officers for regular patrols.
Highlighting an increased visible police presence after the Parsons Green bombing, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick today said: ‘London has not stopped after other terrible attacks and it will not stop after this one.’
Scotland Yard said last night it is making ‘excellent’ progress in hunting the suspected terrorist who set off a crude bucket bomb on a packed commuter train by Parsons Green tube station in west London on Friday.
Read more at Telegraph
