British police have questioned four men in their 20s on suspicion of terrorism in pre-planned, intelligence led raids, The Associated Press reported. They are being are being held on "suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism," BBC News also reported.
Law enforcement agencies said that they averted a plot similar to the terror attack at the Westgate mall in Nairobi Kenya last month, an official said. Authorities, however said, ""it did not appear to be on anything like the scale of earlier major plots, such as the airline liquid bomb plot or the Birmingham rucksack bomb plot, which resulted in convictions," BBC News also reported.
A British security official, speaking under anonymity, said that the four men were planning a shooting spree, similar to the terror attack at the Kenyan shopping center last month, which killed 67 people. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for that assault, which included a 4-day siege.
The British official did not determine how advanced the planning stages were at in this plot, but commnted that the planned attack did not appear to be imminent. British Metropolitan Police did not identify the four suspects, nor comment what charges they were likely to face, but the men were reportedly all British nationals between 25 and 29 with "roots in Turkey, Pakistan, Algeria and Azerbaijan," The AP also reported.
Officers have also six other locations and two vehicles in London.
