Three men and one woman arrested in connection with terrorist attacks in United States

By ED JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer

LONDON – Anti-terrorist police arrested three men and one woman Friday in connection with the terrorism attacks in the United States, Scotland Yard said.

A 27-year-old man and a woman, 25, were arrested at a residence in west London at about 3 a.m., a Scotland Yard spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity. A 29-year-old man was arrested at a separate location in west London.

Officers searched both premises using a warrant issued under a British terrorism law passed last year, the official said.

At about 7 p.m. a third man, whose age was not disclosed, was detained at an address in Birmingham, 100 miles north of London.

"They were arrested in connection with the World Trade Center terrorist attack, and are being questioned by anti-terrorist branch officers," the spokesman told the Associated Press, reading from a statement.

"They were taken to a central London police station where they remain in custody."

The spokesman refused to provide any more information on the suspects or elaborate further on any connection between them and the U.S. attacks.

The arrests came after Britain's most senior police officer, Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens said that London was on its highest peacetime security alert in history, with 1,500 extra officers on the streets this weekend.

AP-WS-09-21-01 1822EDT