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Deadly poison poser for cops
08/01/2003 14:21 - (SA)
London - British police are trying to gauge the depth of the threat posed after traces of deadly ricin were found at a north London flat, sparking fears of a terror attack.
Six North African men were arrested on Sunday morning during a police operation in north and east London, but it still remains unclear how much of the substance was made and what the suspects intended to do with the toxin.
Police experts say there is no known antidote to ricin, which experts say has the potential to be used as a bio-terror agent or a weapon of mass destruction.
Press reports said some of the men were Algerian, but Scotland Yard refused to confirm this early on Wednesday.
Amid fears that other suspects could still be at large with quantities of ricin, family doctors and hospitals across Britain were alerted to look out for anyone with signs of ricin poisoning.
Anti-terrorist police and intelligence services found the toxin after raiding a home early on Sunday in Wood Green, north London. One man was arrested there. The police did not give information on how the other men were caught in north and east London.
Suitable for assassinations
The arrested men are all in their late teens, 20s and 30s. A seventh person, a woman, was arrested, but later released.
It was the first time that such a poison has been found by police in Britain since the September 11, 2001 strikes on the United States, following which Britain has been on high alert.
But police experts say ricin is most suited to being used, possibly through an aerosol, in an assassination attempt rather than a mass attack on a busy civilian target.
Prime Minister Tony Blair, addressing British diplomats on Tuesday at a conference in London, said the arrests showed the continued threat of international terrorism was "present and real and with us now and its potential is huge".
Blair is the strongest European supporter of United States President George W Bush in the American call for the disarmament of Iraq.
Inside the one-bedroomed north London home, police said they found traces of ricin, castor oil beans - from which the poison is made - and equipment and receptacles for crushing the beans.
Forensic analysis at the home, which was being searched by officers wearing protective clothing, was expected to take several days.
Plans to produce ricin attributed to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network were also uncovered in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in November, 2001.
The poison is also among substances being sought by United Nations arms inspectors in Iraq, accused by Britain and the US of developing weapons of mass destruction. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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