Angry scenes as terror police raid homes

Police were jostled and jeered in the early hours today after three houses were raided in an anti-terror operation.

Police were jostled and jeered in the early hours today after three houses were raided in an anti-terror operation.

Uniformed police were standing guard today outside two redbrick terrace houses in Rusholme, Manchester, following the raids shortly before 8pm last night. A third property was also raided but its location has not been revealed.

Angry scenes erupted in the early hours of this morning as the local Somali community clashed with police who removed a disabled woman from a house on Heald Place to enable forensic officers to search.

Around 40 local Somali men and women jostled officers as the woman, aged around 65, was removed from the property and escorted to a friend's house by taxi.

Neighbours said officers, some of them armed, burst into the houses at around 7.50pm last night.

Residents claimed two men, named locally as Mohammed Omar, 30, and Omar Omar, 18, were arrested although this was not confirmed by Greater Manchester Police.

A second redbrick terrace house on Great Western Street, less than two minutes' walk from the Heald Place property, was taped off and two police officers stood watch outside.

Local resident Mahamud Osman criticised the police handling of the situation and complained that officers had failed to update relatives about the situation.

He said: "The police have been heavy-handed in their treatment of us and we do feel as though we are being picked on.

"The idea that the little old disabled lady is a terrorist is a complete joke.

"The police rushed into the house and scared everyone to death."

He denied that either of the two men rumoured to have been arrested during the police raids were particularly religious or had expressed any fanatical beliefs.