Searches across region continue after police raids

MP pays tribute to bravery of firearms officers

- BY JOHN SCHEERHOUT

SEARCHES have been continuing across Greater Manchester three days after armed counter terrorism police - backed by the SAS - carried out a series of dramatic raids said to have thwarted an Iran backed terror plot.

Three men were arrested after specialist officers descended on East Street in Rochdale, Heathbank Road in Stockport, and an undisclosed location in Manchester on Saturday.

Police said the raids were linked to a 'suspected plot to target a specific premises, with two other men arrested in Swindon and London. All five suspects are Iranian nationals.

Four of the suspects arrested on Saturday remain in police custody for questioning after magistrates granted detectives warrants of further detention allowing all four to be held until today (May 10).

The fifth man, who police said was arrested 'in the Manchester area', has been released on bail with 'strict' conditions.

Searches were continuing at the house in Rochdale and at other so-far undisclosed locations and the suspects remain in police custody.

The Met, unusually, has confirmed that all five suspects are Iranian nationals. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has described the arrests as part of 'some of the biggest counter state threat and counter terrorism operations that we have seen in recent years'.

The head of MI5, Ken McCallum, said in October that 'state threat' investigations had 'shot up' by 48 per cent. He went on that the security services had stopped 20 state-backed plots hatched by Iran in the UK since June 2022.

He warned of an 'unprecedented pace and scale' of plots posing 'potentially lethal threats' from Iran, who he said had adopted an 'extensive use of criminal proxies' from drug traffickers to low-level criminals.