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Ten held after security blunder
Ten men have been arrested in the North West of England after Britain's most senior counter terrorism police officer sparked a security alert.Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick said he "deeply regretted" revealing a secret document to photographers when he arrived for a briefing at No 10. The document, clearly marked "secret", carried an outline briefing on an ongoing counter-terrorism operation. The ten suspects were later arrested at locations across north-west England. Opposition MPs were swift to criticise Mr Quick, with the Lib Dems describing him as "accident prone" and the Conservatives condemning his "extraordinary and very alarming" lapse of judgement. Some hours after the Downing Street incident, two men outside the main library at Liverpool John Moores University were arrested by armed officers from the North West Counter-Terrorism Unit. Other students said they heard police shouting at the two suspects, then saw them lying face down on the floor. Witnesses said they were advised over the library loudspeaker to stay away from the windows for their own safety. "Everyone was just panicking," one student told the BBC. Other addresses raided by armed officers, assisted by officers from Merseyside Police, Greater Manchester Police and Lancashire Constabulary, included an internet cafe in the Cheetham Hill area of Manchester and a guest house in Clitheroe, Lancashire. Witnesses said two men were taken from the cafe after police arrived. Mesu Raza, who lives in a flat above the cafe, said: "I saw police arrest two people and put them in a police van. They had handcuffs on, they were Asian men, and the police were armed. Two police vans arrived outside the shop and there was more police went round the back. There were many officers and a large number of police vans." Earlier on Wednesday press photographers in Downing Street snapped Mr Quick clutching a white document marked "secret" and containing the names of several senior officers, locations and details about the nature of the overseas threat. Details of the information revealed cannot be reported. Mr Quick was attending the meeting in his role as lead for counter terrorism and for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo). On Wednesday evening he apologised to Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson for the slip. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Assistant Commissioner Quick accepts he made a mistake on leaving a sensitive document on open view and deeply regrets it. "He has apologised to the Commissioner and colleagues." Posted by: john frum 2009-04-08 |
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