London - British counter-terrorism
police said on Friday they had thwarted an active plot after a
woman was shot during an armed raid on a house in north London
in the second major security operation in the British capital in
the space of a few hours.
Armed counter-terrorism officers using tear gas stormed a
house in the Willesden area of the capital on Thursday evening
which had been under surveillance, shooting a woman in her 20s.
She is said to be in a serious but stable condition in hospital.
Asked if police had foiled an active plot, Neil Basu, Senior
National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, replied:
"Yes".
In a separate incident only hours earlier, a man was
arrested carrying at least three knives near Prime Minister
Theresa May's office in Westminster during another operation by
armed counter-terrorism police.
The 27-year-old, who was being monitored by British
intelligence agents and police, remains in custody.
"Due to these arrests that we have made, I believe that we
have contained the threats that they posed," said Basu, adding
it had been "an extraordinary day in London".
Both incidents occurred just over a month after a
British-born convert to Islam ploughed a car into pedestrians on
Westminster Bridge, killing four people, before stabbing to
death a police officer who was in the grounds of parliament.
A forensic investigator recovers a knife after man was arrested on Whitehall in Westminster, central London. REUTERS/Toby Melville
The
man responsible, Khalid Masood, was shot dead at the scene.
Basu said six people had been arrested in the Willesden
operation, five at the house and another in Kent, in southeast
England.
The shot woman has not been arrested and Basu said her
condition was being closely monitored and the independent police
watchdog had been informed.
"The armed entry was necessary due to the nature of the
intelligence we were dealing with and involved armed officers
firing CS gas into the address," Basu said. Searches at three
houses were continuing, he added.
Meanwhile police are continuing to question the bearded man
dressed in black who was detained in a dramatic stop-and-search
operation on Parliament Street, a stone's throw from the
parliament building, May's office and government departments.
No one was injured in the incident and photographs showed
three knives on the ground where he was arrested. Basu said the
man was being questioned on suspicion of terrorism offences and
two properties were being searched in connection with the
investigation.
A Western security source told Reuters the man, from London,
was on the radar of counter-terrorism officers and the domestic
intelligence agency MI5 before his arrest.
A forensic investigator recovers a knife after man was arrested on Whitehall in Westminster, central London. REUTERS/Toby Melville
Another source familiar with the investigation said the
suspect might have had contacts with militants outside Britain
and travelled to meet them, but it was not believed he had been
in contact with Islamic State militants.
Since August 2014, Britain has been on its second-highest
alert level of "severe", meaning an attack by militants is
considered highly likely. Senior officers said the security
services had thwarted 13 terrorism attempts in the last four
years shortly before the deadly Westminster Bridge incident.
"Activity continues around the clock to identify and stop
these threats and we are making arrests on a near daily basis,"
Basu said.