Thursday night, only hours after a man carrying knives was arrested near Great Britain’s parliament, British police stormed an address in London arresting five people in a counter-terrorism operation.
One 21-year-old woman was shot; police said tear gas was also fired. The BBC reported the people arrested included “a 16-year-old boy, a man and woman, both aged 20 and another man and woman both aged 28. A 43-year-old woman was also arrested in Kent. All of them were detained on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of terrorist acts.”
Met police deputy assistant commissioner Neil Basu confirmed police had disrupted an active plot, adding police had “contained the threats that they posed.” He added, “An armed entry was necessary due to the nature of the intelligence that we were dealing with, and involved armed officers firing CS (teargas) into the address.”
According to police, a woman who is in her 20’s was hospitalized so she was not arrested.
As NBC News reported, “Armed police are uncommon in the U.K. but police said the armed raid was necessary ‘due to the nature of the intelligence that we were dealing with.’”
A neighbor said that the family living in the residence was from Somalia, according to the BBC.