Reid stresses terror threat

He told a news conference that police were now confident the "main players" in the alleged plot had been accounted for. Police are holding 21 people after suspects were seized in overnight raids in London, south east England, and Birmingham.

Dr Reid informed reporters that the decision to act overnight had been taken with the full knowledge of the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. And he stressed that neither the Government nor the police were in any way complacent. "This is an ongoing and complex operation," he said.

Page 2 - Reid's warning.

Today's developments were anticipated in a speech by Dr Reid on Wednesday, in which he stated that the country was facing its "most sustained period of serious threat" since the end of the Second World War.

In an address to the think tank Demos, he warned: "Individuals who can network courtesy of new technology and access modern chemical, biological and other means of mass destruction, and who have therefore unconstrained capability as well as unconstrained intent, are an enemy we have never had to face before."

Dr Reid's speech yesterday emphasised that the freedoms currently enjoyed by UK citizens might have to be curtailed in the fight against terror. "Sometimes we may have to modify some of our own freedoms in the short term in order to prevent their misuse and abuse by those who oppose our fundamental values and would destroy all of our freedoms in the long term," he said.

The Home Secretary explained that legal frameworks and international agreements, which focus on protecting the individual, had been developed in response to the threats from an earlier age. But times had changed - the threat now came not from fascist states but from "fascist individuals".

And pre-empting today's disruption to people's travel plans at airports throughout the country, the Home Secretary said that while he believed in British values such as education, job opportunities and the chance to travel, people needed to understand the depth and magnitude of the threat posed to the British way of life.

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