Police said Tuesday they had found traces of the deadly poison ricin in a north London apartment and arrested six men of North African origin, fueling fears about a new brand of terrorism in a capital long accustomed to the threat of more conventional attacks.
London's Metropolitan Police said material seized at a flat in the Wood Green neighborhood on Sunday had tested positive Tuesday for traces of the toxin, which has been linked in the past to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network and Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.
PHOTO: AFP
It is one of the world's most powerful poisons, twice as deadly as cobra venom. Tiny amounts can kill, and there is no antidote.
In Washington, US officials said no al-Qaeda links had yet been established to the London arrests, but that it was a matter being investigated.
Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking to a meeting of British ambassadors, said the find highlighted the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction.
"As the arrests .. show, this danger is present and real, and with us now, and its potential is huge," he said.
Ricin is derived from the castor bean plant, which is grown around the world. It is relatively easy to produce, and Andy Oppenheimer, a chemical and biological weapons expert at Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor, said that its presence in London did not necessarily indicate a connection to any outside group or country.
Anti-terrorist police said they had arrested six men under the Terrorism Act during raids in east and north London and seized "a quantity of material and items of equipment" at the Wood Green apartment.
Police did not publicly identify the men and refused to specify what country or countries they were from, saying only that they were in their late teens, 20s and 30s. They were not immediately charged with a crime.
The BBC reported on television Tuesday night that the men were Algerian, but Scotland Yard refused to confirm that.
A woman arrested in the raids was released without charge, authorities said.
Police said the arrests were prompted by "receipt of intelligence" but gave no other details.
"We have previously said that London -- and indeed the rest of the UK -- continues to face a range of terrorist threats from a number of different groups," police anti-terrorist branch chief David Veness and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pat Troop said in a statement.
Blair's spokesman said he knew of no specific intelligence about how the suspects may have planned to use the ricin.
The Department of Health said doctors around Britain had been informed of the find and warned to look for symptoms of ricin exposure, including fever, stomach ache, diarrhea and vomiting.
Ricin causes diarrhea so severe that victims can die of shock from massive fluid and electrolyte loss.
Oppenheimer, the weapons expert, said injecting ricin was an effective way of targeting individuals -- like Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov, killed in London in 1978. Police said ricin was in a pinhead-sized pellet injected into Markov's thigh, but couldn't confirm the widely reported theory that he was jabbed by a rigged umbrella.
Oppenheimer said terrorists could kill large numbers of people with ricin if they put it into aerosol, a job he described as tricky but not impossible. A crowded, enclosed environment like the London Underground would probably be the most appealing target, he added.
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