On Monday, the Australian police arrested a 27-year-old male doctor in Brisbane, and are currently questioning a second doctor. The Australian activity indicates that the search for the perpetrators of the attempted bombings has now gone global.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said that police were acting on information received from the UK and the man arrested was an Indian national attempting to return to India.
Six of the eight people arrested in the UK are currently being questioned at London’s Paddington Green police station. Seven of these are believed to be foreign born, though security services are still investigating the possibility of the involvement of British nationals.
Security across the transportation network across the UK is still high, with secondary searches occurring at Heathrow and controlled explosions having been carried out on suspect vehicles at Glasgow and Hammersmith, London.
In a statement to the House of Commons on Monday, the new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that 19 locations had been searched by police investigating the attempted attacks.
In a measured address, she sought to emphasise the criminality, rather than religious motivations of terrorists.
“Let us be clear – terrorists are criminals, whose victims come from all walks of life, communities and religious backgrounds. Terrorists attack the values that are shared by all law-abiding citizens. As a government, as communities, as individuals we need to ensure that the message of the terrorists is rejected,” she said.
Forensic investigators are still continuing their investigation of the two unexploded cars found in London, as well as the remains of the jeep that crashed into Glasgow airport. They hope to discover a gold mine of information, particularly from the two unexploded cars.
On Friday, two car bombs that failed to detonate were found in the West End of London and then on Saturday a burning car was driven into the reception area of Glasgow airport.
The UK’s terror alert is currently at critical, meaning that the security services fear that a terrorist attack in imminent.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking after chairing a meeting of Cobra, the civil contingencies committee on Saturday, called for the British people to be “resolute and strong”.
“I want all British people to be vigilant and I want them to support the police and all the authorities in the difficult decisions that they have to make,” he said.
Anyone with any information is urged to phone the confidential Anti-Terrorism Hotline on 0800 789 321.
Police are appealing for anybody who saw the green Jeep Cherokee registration number L808 RDT crash into Glasgow Airport, or who have any knowledge of its movements, or anyone who saw a blue Mercedes on Cockspur Street in London late Thursday and early Friday to contact them.