Timesonline
A desperate search was under way last night for the terrorist bomb factory from which a suspected al-Qaeda cell planned to launch a devastating attack in Manchester.
Hours after Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism officer resigned in disgrace, police operations were concentrating on a rundown block of flats east of Liverpool city centre.
The block was cordoned off and large quantities of material were seized for examination. People were evacuated from the area around the flats, which had been rented out by a private landlord to foreign students.
A dozen men are being questioned after raids that had to be rushed forward after Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, the country’s most senior anti-terrorism officer, inadvertently disclosed details of the police plans.
Ten of the 12 men arrested on Wednesday were Pakistani nationals who entered Britain on student visas.
All were from the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, the heartland of al-Qaeda and mujahidin activity. They appear to have exploited a visa regime described by a minister last month as “the major loophole in Britain’s border controls”.
Security sources are alarmed that terrorists may have exploited weaknesses in the vetting of student visa applicants to plant sleeper cells here.
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