LONDON: Two men were arrested in Wales on Wednesday over last week’s London Underground terror attack in which 30 people were injured, bringing the total number of people in custody to five, police said.

The men, aged 48 and 30, were arrested under anti-terrorism legislation in Newport in Wales, police said, after a 25-year-old man was arrested in the same city on Tuesday.

“This continues to be a fast-moving investigation,” Dean Haydon, head of counter-terrorism at London’s Metropolitan Police, said in a statement. “We now have five men in custody and searches are continuing at four addresses,” he said. “We anticipate that the searches will take some days to complete and may cause further disruption”.

Friday’s attack on a train at Parsons Green station in west London was claimed by IS. A bomb hidden in a large white bucket apparently failed to detonate fully when it went off during morning rush hour but instead released what witnesses described as a “fireball” into the air. Some commuters suffered burns, while others were injured in the stampede to the exit that ensued.

The man arrested on Tuesday was described by locals as “a nice guy, very softly spoken” who worked as a painter and decorator. “He did some painting on our house about two years ago,” said a neighbour. “He used to condemn terrorism in front of my husband, my husband would condemn terrorism and he would agree with him.” Sully Ali, a witness to the arrest, told the domestic Press Association that: “A big van pulled up and six officers got out and jumped this guy.

“There were two armed officers there, they didn’t have their guns pointed at him but they had them on show. The guy was smiling.”

The bombing was the fifth terror attack in Britain in six months, which combined have claimed 35 lives. The terror alert in Britain was raised to its maximum “critical” level on Friday, meaning another attack was believed to be imminent. It was lowered back to “severe” on Sunday.

An 18-year-old man, reportedly an Iraqi refugee, was arrested in the ferry departure terminal of the port of Dover on Saturday and a 21-year-old man was detained later the same day in west London. The 21-year-old was named by British media, who said he was originally from Syria and had been working at a fast food chicken restaurant.

Police said searches were also continuing at another address near London and two properties in Newport.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2017