UK police get more time to question 6 female terror suspects

Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command officers have been given seven more days to question six female terror suspects arrested over the last few weeks in London and Kent area of south-east England.

All six were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorist acts and detained under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Warrants of further detention, for up to seven more days, were granted on Thursday at Westminster Magistrates' Court in respect of all six women whilst enquiries continue, a Metropolitan Police statement said. A 21-year-old woman was arrested in hospital after being shot when officers fired laughing gas through the windows of a flat in north-west London and stormed the property.

A second woman, 20, was arrested at the flat and a 43- year-old woman was arrested in Kent. Subsequent raids led to the arrests of three teenage women, aged 18 or 19, in east London. Meanwhile, three men arrested during raids by heavily armed counter-terrorism officers as part of the same operation have been released without charge.

Officers have now completed the searches of all the addresses connected with the arrests, the Met said. The news came as officers from the Met's Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) arrested a 30-year-old man.