UK police get more time to quiz Iranian terror suspects

British police said Monday that they had secured warrants to further question four Iranian men arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences this weekend.

Police arrested five Iranian men aged between 29 and 46 in Saturday's operation, four of whom were detained under the Terrorism Act, while the fifth was detained under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.

"Warrants of further detention have today (Monday, 5 May) been secured for those four men, meaning they can be detained and questioned until Saturday, 10 May," said the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.

The fifth man detained under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act has been released on bail to a date in May, added the force.

"Our officers and staff are progressing what is a significant and highly complex investigation, and we still have searches and activity underway at multiple addresses across the country," said Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.

"We believe that a specific premises was the target of this suspected plot and Counter Terrorism Policing officers remain in close contact with the affected premises," he added.

The arrests were carried out in London, Swindon and the Greater Manchester area.

The Daily Telegraph reported that the authorities felt they had been dealing with an imminent attack.

Three other men, all Iranian nationals, were arrested in London in a separate counter terrorism police operation on Saturday.

Last October, the head of Britain's MI5 domestic intelligence service revealed that since 2022 the UK had uncovered 20 Iran-backed plots posing "potentially lethal threats".