Two held over BBC and Ealing bombs

Anti-terrorist police today swooped on two men with suspected links to London bomb attacks including the blasts at Ealing and the BBC last year.

The men were held in dawn raids on homes in Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire. They are being questioned at a Leeds police station tonight.

Both were held on behalf of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist squad as part of an ongoing investigation into a range of suspected Real IRA bomb attacks in the capital and Birmingham.

A 42-year-old man was arrested first in Nottinghamshire and a short while later the second man, aged 43, was held in Gloucestershire.

Searches of the premises where the men were seized are taking place today. Police said they had recovered a number of items which had been taken away for forensic examination.

Scotland Yard refused to say whether the two men were English or Irish.

Police sources said both arrests were in connection with the "support network" for alleged terrorist activity. The men were not believed to be key players.

So far, at least four people have been arrested and charged in connection with bomb attacks in Birmingham and London.