Terror raid police to be armed under stricter safety code
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Firearms officers are expected to be used in almost all anti-terrorist operations against al-Qa'ida suspects, and more suspects are likely to be handcuffed immediately under tighter security measures governing future police raids.
The changes are expected to follow an independent inquiry announced yesterday by the Home Secretary in response to the fatal stabbing on Tuesday of Detective Constable Stephen Oake in Manchester. David Blunkett said the investigation, which will publish interim findings in four weeks, will examine why none of the officers who took part in the Manchester raid was armed.
Details of the inquiry were revealed as a fourth terror suspect was arrested in Manchester. The Algerian man was later taken to London for questioning.
The man being held for the murder of DC Oake was wanted by MI5 and is alleged to be a key member of a British based network of Algerian supporters of al-Qa'ida. Mr Blunkett said a senior officer from a police force outside Manchester would be appointed to head the inquiry into the stabbing. In a statement to the House of Commons, he said: "Armed response vehicle resources were available throughout the operation for immediate deployment as required, but firearms officers were not deployed in specific support of this operation. The inquiry will obviously examine this."
The Home Secretary also disclosed further details of the raid, which followed an MI5 tip that an failed Algerian asylum-seeker, was hiding in a one-bedroomed flat in north Manchester. The suspect had allegedly been living in the flat for the past 13 months.
When the police and immigration service officials arrived they were surprised to discover that there were two other Algerian men in the flat. They then discovered one of the men, aged 27, was wanted by MI5 and was believed to be a member of a suspected terror network which, it is claimed, was planning to mount chemical attacks in Britain. The network is alleged to be responsible for making ricin poison found in a flat in Wood Green, north London, at the beginning of the month.
In Tuesday's raid in Manchester, a 27-year-old man allegedly stabbed DC Oake with a kitchen knife and injured four other officers. None of the officers was armed and the 14 Special Branch intelligence, that included DC Oake, were not wearing protective vests. Nine uniformed officers who broke into the flat were wearing body armour, said Mr Blunkett. The three suspects were not handcuffed during the operation.
Police said a 32-year-old Algerian man had given himself up in Manchester on Wednesday night. The man, who was being sought by Special Branch, is suspected of being a peripheral member of the alleged al-Qa'ida network. Police said he was not directly linked to the discovery of ricin. The New York Police Department has sent a counter-terrorism investigator to Britain to assist the investigation of the suspected poison plot.
DC Oake's family travelled yesterday to the scene of Tuesday's raid. DC Oake's widow Lesley, 40, wept as she laid a bouquet of white lilies alongside a growing line of other floral tributes outside the house in Crumpsall Lane. A card with the flowers said: "To my dearest sweetheart, forever in my heart, love you always, Lesley."
The couple's three children, Rebecca, 14, Corinne, 12, and Christopher, 15, were all in tears as the family spent 30 minutes at the spot reading messages of condolence left by dozens of well-wishers and friends and colleagues of the murdered officer.
The dead man's father Robin Oake , 65, a former chief constable of the Isle of Man, continually wiped away tears as he and his wife, Christine, laid red roses in memory of their son.