Parsons Green: Two more men arrested over ‘bucket bomb’, bringing total held over Tube attack to five

Lunchtime news from the Telegraph

Two more men have been arrested in connection with the Parsons Green bombing, taking the total to five. Scotland Yard said men aged 30 and 48 were detained during a raid by counter-terrorism officers at a home in Newport, South Wales at around 5.10am on Wednesday.

A third man, 25, who was arrested at a separate address in Newport shortly after 7pm on Tuesday, and two other suspects detained on Saturday remain in custody.

Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Met Counter Terrorism Command, said: “This continues to be a fast-moving investigation. A significant amount of activity has taken place since the attack on Friday. We now have five men in custody and searches are continuing at four addresses.

Witnesses to Tuesday’s arrest described officers “jumping” a man who was put into a police car and driven away. 

Mr Ali said the arrested man worked as a painter and decorator for some local residents.He added: “They were Met Police officers, they were wearing hats saying Met Police and they didn’t speak like anyone from round here.” That’s because they weren’t from round there. 

Residents said the arrested man had lived in the area for many years and attended local mosques. “He was a nice guy, everybody knew him,” one man said. “He was a student here and he worked as a painter and decorator.”

One mother added: “He did some painting on our house about two years ago. He was a nice guy, he was very softly spoken. He used to condemn terrorism in front of my husband, my husband would condemn terrorism and he would agree with him. I know he is a Muslim but I don’t know what mosque he went to. Muslims in this area are totally shocked, we condemn terrorism totally and we totally condemn what happened in London.”

The latest raids were carried out by the Met Counter Terrorism Command, assisted by Gwent Police and the Welsh Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit (Wectu) and both addresses in the town were being searched on Wednesday.

Detectives had already been granted more time to question two suspects, Yahyah Farroukh, 21, and an 18-year-old man, over Friday morning’s bomb attack on a London Underground train, which injured 30.