More time to quiz PM 'plot' suspect

3:34am Thursday 28th August 2008

Police have been granted more time to question a white Muslim convert arrested in connection with an alleged plot to kill the Prime Minister.

The 24-year-old man was arrested in Blackburn on Tuesday.

Lancashire Police said they have been granted seven days to question him under the Terrorism Act 2006.

A total of five men are being questioned about an alleged plot to assassinate Gordon Brown, according to police sources.

It is understood no actual plot was in place but that officers discovered a written threat on an extremist jihadi website earlier this year.

Three men, aged 21, 22, and 23 were arrested at Manchester Airport and Accrington on August 14.

The latest arrest was made when a 29-year-old man, believed to be Eastern European, was held in Derby.

Counter-terrorist officers dressed in white boiler suits and wearing face masks spent the day searching the house in the Normanton district of the city where the 29-year-old man lived.

Police have until Thursday to either charge the three men arrested on August 14, release them or seek an extension to their custody.