British police investigating a series of failed bomb attacks in London said yesterday they had arrested four men in the English city of Birmingham.
One man was arrested during a police search of a home in England's second largest city of Birmingham, at 4:30am, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said. The man was shot with a stun gun during the search and police said they uncovered a suspicious package, which was being examined by explosives experts.
Three other men were arrested shortly after at another home in the city, about 190km northwest of London.
"The operations are in connection with the incidents in London on July 21," the spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity. Four bombs were planted on London Underground trains and a bus on that day, but they failed to fully detonate.
Police have since then launched a manhunt after releasing images of four men thought responsible for planting the devices. They released the names of two of the suspects.
Officials could not confirm reports that one of the men arrested in Birmingham was one of the four suspected bombers.
Police have been trying to determine whether last week's failed bombings were connected to the deadly July 7 attacks that killed 52 people and the four suicide bombers who carried them out.
In a separate development, two other men were arrested on suspicion of terrorism while traveling on a train in the midlands region.
Lincolnshire police said the train, which was on its way to London's King's Cross station from Newcastle, was stopped at Grantham where the men were arrested at 11pm Tuesday.
The men were being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and would be questioned yesterday. It was not immediately clear if the arrests were linked to the investigation into the London bombings.
The Birmingham arrests also came as police explosives experts were examining suspicious material found in a north London apartment connected to two men suspected of planting failed bombs, both identified as African immigrants who moved to Britain as children.
The bombs, which failed to fully detonate, were stored in clear plastic food containers and put into dark-colored bags or backpacks. A spokesman said those four bombs were similar to another found abandoned in a park Saturday, raising fears that a fifth bomber is on the loose.
The police spokesman said the first man arrested was being brought to the high-security Paddington Green police station in central London, while the other three were being held in Birmingham.
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