The searches follow the arrest of one man yesterday and an overnight raid on a nearby flat.



Twenty-four-year-old Sajit Badat is still being detained tonight in London's Paddington Police Station under the Terrorism Act.



According to the police a small amount of explosives was recovered from his address. As our home affairs correspondent, Simon Israel reports, it could have been as much as two kilos:



Today items continued to be removed from number 44 St James Street in Gloucester for forensic analysis, long after its resident had been transported to London for further questioning under the prevention of Terrorism Act.



The anti terrorist squad said today a small amount of explosives had been found in the property, which Channel Four News understands maybe as much as two kilos of a plastic type.



But this was not only place in Gloucester to be gone over today. A flat above a shop in Barton Street was raided and there were two further searches of homes in nearby streets Derby Road and All Saints Road.



The lone arrest in Gloucester is believed to be 24 year old Sajid Badat, (pictured left) and the very fact there were no others prompted speculation, but no confirmation, that the focus of this inquiry is on a suicide bomb plot.



But around his neighbourhood, he's been described as a walking angel by those who say they know him.



He lived and studied in a shared room at the school in Blackburn for two years, training to be an Islamic scholar. The College of Islamic Knowledge and Guidance has a high reputation. The vast majority of the English speaking imams have trained here and it has strong links to the local university.



Badat left this summer half way through his course



Scotland Yard gave very little away today about their suspect. But it did pour scorn on some of today's headlines: claims of a threat to football stadiums, it said, were wide of the mark. And it also discounted reports that they had found a shoe bomb, which justified claims of a link to Richard Reid who used this method to try to blow up a transatlantic flight.



Yesterday the Home Secretary appeared certain about what had been uncovered - an al-Qaeda plot. Today there was a hint of rowing back.



Tonight while the suspect is being questioned at a central London police there has been at least one further arrest in Birmingham.



Last month, a 35-year-old man from the city's Sparkbrook suburb was held for six days under the Terrorism Act before being released and another arrested days arriving at Heathrow from Pakistan.