British police said Tuesday they have arrested a man under the Terrorism Act, a move which comes days after the U.K. raised its terror alert from “substantial” to “severe.”
Officers from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit arrested a 30-year-old man from the Sparkhill area of Birmingham, Britain's second largest city, Tuesday morning. The man was arrested on suspicion of possessing material likely to be of use to a terrorist and of “distributing terrorist publications,” the police said in a statement.
The man's home address and one other residential property in the Kings Heath part of the city were being searched and computer equipment has been taken away for analysis, the police said, declining to give further details.
“This arrest comes as a result of a long, detailed and ongoing enquiry,” said Detective Superintendent Kenny Bell, the counterterrorism unit's head of investigations.
The U.K.'s Home Office said Friday it had increased the terror alert because of a pick up in “intelligence chatter” about a possible threat to the U.K. Still, Home Secretary Alan Johnson said there is no evidence to suggest that an attack is imminent.
