London police said they arrested three men on Saturday on suspicion of terror links. Two of the arrests were made in a city square where the publisher of a forthcoming book about the Prophet Mohammed has its office.
The arrests were intelligence-led, the Metropolitan Police said, indicating that there was no suggestion that an incident was imminent.
Police said two of the men were stopped in the street by armed officers in Lonsdale Square, north London, and that a small fire at a house in the square was related to the arrest. The third man was arrested near a subway station in the Islington district, in the same area of north London as Lonsdale Square.
The British news agency Press Association said the house where the fire occurred was the home and office of publisher Martin Rynja, whose publishing house Gibson Square announced earlier this month that it would publish a novel about Mohammed and his child bride titled The Jewel of Medina.
London’s Metropolitan Police said the men, aged 22, 30 and 40, were arrested on suspicion of committing, preparing or instigating acts of terrorism. But there were no immediate details of what the men were suspected of doing.
Four properties in London, including one in Lonsdale Square, were being searched, police said.
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