LONDON – British counter-terror police have shot down a woman and arrested four more people in raids conducted in London and southeastern England.
The injured suspect remained hospitalised till Friday morning in a serious but stable condition after the raid in north-west London. She was shot after police raided a house in the Willesden neighbourhood.
Police said on Friday that she was the subject of an ongoing investigation. The woman is said to be around 20 years old and was under police guard but had not been arrested yet. The police said an active terrorist plot was thwarted by the raids conducted on Thursday evening but did not immediately provide further details.
Two others were arrested at a location in Willesden, north-west London, as was the neighbour. Another woman in Kent was also arrested. Police said the four people were being held on suspicion of preparing for terrorist acts.
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Two more individuals were placed under arrest upon returning to the Willesden address later Thursday evening.
A police statement says the overnight raids were not related to Thursday’s incident near Parliament in which a man was arrested while allegedly carrying large knives in a backpack.
The police said they believed the arrest of the man near Parliament and the raids stemming up from the separate investigation had effectively contained the relevant threats to the public.
Security has been increased around Parliament since an attacker drove an SUV into pedestrians on nearby Westminster Bridge on March 22, killing four, before stabbing a police officer to death inside the gates of Parliament. The attacker, Khalid Masood, was later shot dead by police.
Police believe Masood, 52, a British-born Muslim convert with convictions for violence, acted alone, but ISIS did claim responsibility for the attack.