LONDON - Police arrested four men in central England on Wednesday while hunting for men wanted in last week's failed London bomb attacks, and local media said one of the men was a suspected bomber.
Police declined to say whether a bomber had been captured in the dawn raids in the city of Birmingham, but one man was taken to the British capital for questioning at a high security detention centre.
Police sources said that man -- detained in the Hay Mills area of Britain's second city -- was the most significant arrest. The BBC and Sky TV, citing unspecified sources, said it was believed he was a suspected bomber.
Police used a stun gun which emitted an electronic shock to temporarily disable him and a suspect package was discovered at the address, a police spokeswoman said. The BBC said the man wore a rucksack.
The botched bombings on July 21 occurred exactly two weeks after four suicide bombers killed 52 people in a similar attack on London's transport system. Police have linked the suicide bombers to al Qaeda.
The three other men were detained at another address and taken to a West Midlands police station. All of the arrests were made under anti-terrorism laws.
Train Station Arrests
Police arrested another two men at a train station in the central town of Grantham as they travelled from the northern city of Newcastle towards London's King's Cross station.
Officers swooped on a train late on Tuesday after a tip-off from off-duty police officers. A police source said the Grantham arrests were not thought to be significant.
Police last week published photos of the four main suspects in the July 21 attempted attacks from images captured on security cameras and appealed to the public to report any sightings but not approach the men.
Police chief Ian Blair said on Tuesday the investigation into the failed attack was moving at an astonishing pace but warned that the fugitive bombers could strike again.
Newspapers reported on Wednesday that a prime suspect wanted for last week's attempted London bombings had served a jail sentence for knifepoint robberies.
Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, wanted over an attempt to plant a bomb on a bus in last week's failed attacks, was jailed for 5 years in 1996 for mugging people when he was part of a teenage gang, the Daily Telegraph said.
The Home Office (interior ministry) said Ibrahim arrived in Britain from the East African country of Eritrea in 1992.
Ibrahim and another of the four suspected bombers arrived in Britain as child refugees from East Africa and newspapers said they had received state welfare payments.
The Home Office (interior ministry) and police declined to comment on the reports.
Police were checking comments by a neighbour that at least one of the suspects may have returned to the flat in north London the day after the attempted bombings.
"I spotted them on Friday afternoon," Tanya Wright told the Sun. "When they spotted me, they turned pale as if they had seen a ghost. I was with my Alsatian (dog). I guess they must have thought I was a policewoman."
A police source told Reuters the information was "extremely interesting" but officers had yet to confirm the details.
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