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Twelve people have been arrested as part of an investigation into an extreme right-wing terror threat against an Islamic event at the weekend, police have said.<\/p>\n
The UK Ijtima was held at Shrubland Hall, Barham, near Ipswich, over the weekend and organisers estimated that 10,000 people had attended the event.<\/p>\n
The event was ended early following concerns over a “possible threat”, said Suffolk Police.<\/p>\n
“Officers worked alongside the local authority and organisers of the event to facilitate the safe exit of all those attending the event [on Sunday],” said a spokesperson.<\/p>\n
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the response of the police in tackling a \u201ccredible threat\u201d to the festival had \u201cundoubtedly saved lives\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI know this is deeply concerning news for British Muslims.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must stand against hatred and we must unite around our shared belief in a country that is open, generous and tolerant to all our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shabana Mahmood said it was “deeply concerning news for British Muslims” Credit: PA<\/p>\n
Ruman Muhith, an Ipswich borough councillor who helped with the event, thanked police for their intervention. <\/p>\n
“It was really disappointing that it ended early, but every single attendee understood that this was a request from the organisers,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It also didn\u2019t surprise me that there had been a threat. We actually knew there might already be a risk as we have seen similar things with previous events. <\/p>\n
“But everyone took the police advice, as you have to take that seriously.”<\/p>\n
Ruman Muhith, an Ipswich borough councillor who helped with the event, said the outcome could have been “disastrous”<\/p>\n
Commander Helen Flanagan, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing London said: \u201cAfter becoming aware of a potential serious threat towards the Islamic event in Suffolk, we have moved extremely quickly to make a number of arrests in various locations across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to thank colleagues in Suffolk Police for their ongoing support, which led to the declaration of a major incident on Sunday in response to this. I\u2019d also like to thank the event organisers and the public who have been impacted by this.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know this news may be concerning to the public and particularly those in the Muslim community, given that we believe the intended target was an Islamic event. But as we have shown, we will not hesitate to act if there is any potential threat, no matter who or what the potential target may be. I\u2019m also pleased to say that although the event ended slightly earlier than planned, it nevertheless passed off safely.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, this activity is a stark reminder that the threat level in the UK is at \u2018severe\u2019, so we urge the public to remain vigilant and report anything if it doesn\u2019t look or feel right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eight of the 12 people have been arrested and detained under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000, as part of the investigation, police said.<\/p>\n
They include:<\/p>\n
a 27-year-old man arrested in Surrey on Sunday;<\/p>\n
a 35-year-old man arrested in the Greater Manchester area on Sunday;<\/p>\n
a 31-year-old man arrested in east London on Monday;<\/p>\n
a 42-year-old man arrested in Essex on Sunday;<\/p>\n
a 42-year-old man arrested in Essex on Sunday;<\/p>\n
a 33-year-old man arrested in southeast London on Monday;<\/p>\n
a 29-year-old man arrested in Surrey on Sunday;<\/p>\n
a 27-year-old man arrested in Ipswich on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Three other men, aged 55, 60 and 82, were arrested in Surrey on Sunday on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, while a 48-year-old woman was arrested in East London on suspicion of assisting an offender.<\/p>\n
Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Play Brightcove video Twelve people have been arrested as part of an investigation into an extreme right-wing terror…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-689696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}