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Raid: Cops 'had no choice'
05/06/2006 21:04 - (SA)
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 on Monday.
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." Toxic bomb
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. Gunshot wound
There were confused reports about how the 23-year-old
suspect got 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 on Monday 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 de 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 telling the Daily Telegraph.
- Reuters
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