MANCHESTER, Jan 15: British police interrogated three north African suspects on Wednesday after a policeman was stabbed to death during an anti-terrorism operation linked to the discovery of a deadly poison in London.

Shocked by the first loss of an officer in dozens of post-Sept 11 swoops on suspected terror cells, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government said the incident had “major implications” for its wider war on terror.

Detective Stephen Oake was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife late on Tuesday during a raid in Manchester, northern England, connected to last week’s discovery of ricin in London.

Police entered the upper-floor flat in a multi-cultural suburb of Manchester expecting to find one man but in fact encountering three, all in their 20s.

Immigration officers and police wearing chemical suits first secured the apartment and detained the men. Others then entered for forensic work and intelligence-gathering.

An hour into the search, one of the north Africans — who had been put into protective suits to protect forensic evidence but not handcuffed — broke free, grabbed a kitchen knife and lunged at officers, police said. Oake was stabbed in the chest during the melee and pronounced dead on arrival at a Manchester hospital.

Four other police officers were injured.

“We have a full murder investigation in progress,” Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Michael Todd told Reuters near the red-bricked Victorian house where the raid took place.

Blair — whose nation is considered high on the list of terrorism targets because of its military and political support for the United States — called the incident “an appalling tragedy and wicked in the extreme”.

Oake was known to the prime minister after serving in his protection unit several times during trips north.—Reuters