Explosives found in raid
2004-03-30 15:50
London - More than half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertiliser - a key bomb-making ingredient used in the Bali and Turkey bombings - has been recovered during a series of terror raids across England.
Police said the bomb-making material was seized from an industrial storage unit in Hanwell, west London.
Eight suspects were arrested in the dawn raids, which involved more than 700 police officers and 24 addresses around the country.
They are all British citizens and aged 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 21, 22 and 32.
The material recovered is the same type which was used in the Bali bombings in October 2002 which killed 202 people, and last year's attacks in Turkey which killed 160.
The main explosion in Bali involved 50-100kgs of ammonium nitrate - around one fifth of the amount recovered in London today.
Terror threat "very real"
Two men were arrested in Uxbridge, one each in Ilford, Hanwell and Slough and three in Crawley during today's raids.
The suspects were arrested under anti-terrorism legislation on suspicion of being involved in terrorism.
Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner Peter Clarke, the national co-ordinator for terrorism, said the suspects were not linked to Irish Republican terrorism or to the recent attack in Madrid.
He said: "I must stress the threat from terrorism is very real and the public must remain watchful and alert."
SkyNews correspondent Martin Brunt said police had not planned to launch the raids today.
"The raids were some weeks away, but something made police move quickly," Brunt said.
"I understand it was the bomb-making equipment.
"It was material that police were fairly sure was going to be constructed into a bomb," he said. - SkyNews