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Britain on maximum alert
01/07/2007 23:24 - (SA)
Prashant Rao
London - Britain is on maximum alert with the government vowing to defy the "evil" of terrorism, as police raided homes and made arrests following three failed attacks.
Officers were searching properties in Glasgow, Liverpool and Newcastle-under-Lyme, having arrested five people, including one man in critical condition in hospital with burns.
Police anti-terror chief Peter Clarke told reporters in Glasgow that the investigation was "extremely fast-moving", adding that the links between the attacks were becoming "ever clearer" after police carried out a controlled explosion on a suspect car at the hospital.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain faced the threat of Al-Qaeda attacks after a blazing car tried to ram into Glasgow airport's main terminal on Saturday following two foiled car bombings in London the day before.
Brown, facing a baptism of fire just days after succeeding Tony Blair, said: "We will not yield, we will not be intimidated.
"It is clear that we are dealing in general terms with people who are associated with Al-Qaeda in a number of incidents that have happened across the world."
People being interviewed at police station
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, only given the job on Thursday, refused to comment on a report that two people arrested on a motorway near Liverpool had been the drivers of the two Mercedes cars left packed with explosives in London.
Scotland Yard confirmed however that a 26-year-old man and 27-year-old woman detained on the M6 motorway were being interviewed at a London police station.
Also in London, Terminal 3 of London's Heathrow Airport, the world's biggest international air hub, was briefly closed late on Sunday after a "suspect package" was found.
The spokesperson for airports operator BAA was unable to say how many flights had been disrupted, or provide details about the package itself.
Glasgow airport's main terminal, meanwhile, re-opened on Sunday with limited service.
Liverpool's John Lennon airport was temporarily closed on Saturday night.
The government raised the security alert level to "critical", the highest of five levels, for the first time since August, and just ahead of the second anniversary of the July 7, 2005 suicide bombings on London's transport network that killed 52 commuters.
"Critical" is the highest on a five-level scale and means another attack could be imminent.
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