UK Police had 'no choice' but to launch terror raid

LONDON - Anti-terrorism police were left with "no choice" but to launch a raid against a house in east London last week to hunt for evidence of a chemical bomb, one of the capital's most senior police officers said today.

A 23-year old man was shot during the dawn raid last Friday and he and his 20-year-old brother were both arrested when more than 250 police officers, some in chemical protection suits, stormed their home.

"It's very important that I emphasise that police did receive specific intelligence. We were left with no choice but to act upon that intelligence," Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman said in a statement.

He said the search on the property in Landsdown Road would last the rest of the week.

Documents and computers have been taken from the house, but no firearms or explosive devices have been recovered so far.

"Given the nature of what we thought we might find, we felt that we needed a number of cordons put in place, we needed to secure the house to stop anyone escaping, and we needed to be dressed in the way were because of the nature of the intelligence."

Britain has been on high alert since the attacks when four British Islamists blew themselves up on underground trains and a bus, killing 52 commuters and injuring about 700.

Police sources have said the intelligence suggested the house might have been used to make a toxic bomb for an attack. Lawyers for the men say they deny all accusations.

Newspaper reports on Monday quoted unnamed police sources and counter-terrorism officials as saying doubt is growing about whether any evidence of chemical devices or bombs will be found.

The arrested men - who live in the ethnically mixed Forest Gate area of east London which has a sizeable Muslim population - were being held at London's high security Paddington Green police station.

There were confused reports about how the 23-year-old suspect suffered a gunshot wound during the raid.

Both men's lawyers rejected reports he had been shot by his brother in a struggle with police, insisting an officer fired.

Some newspapers yesterday quoted police sources as saying the gun may have been fired accidentally during a struggle.

Police shot dead an innocent Brazilian man, Jean Charles de Menezes, in the weeks after the July attacks. They wrongly identified Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician living in London, as a suicide bomber.

"If the intelligence was wrong, we possibly have egg on our faces. We have wasted a lot of time, put a lot of people out, one man has been shot and two have been arrested," the source was quoted as saying, a police source told the Daily Telegraph.

- REUTERS