SIX men were being held by police in London yesterday over recent IRA
terrorist attacks on the British mainland.
They were detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act after a
series of police raids.
Three were being questioned by detectives from Staffordshire hunting
the IRA killers of Army recruit Private Robert Davies, who was shot at
Lichfield railway station on Friday.
It was understood the others were being questioned by Scotland Yard
officers investigating the IRA's mainland bombing campaign -- including
recent bomb attacks at Wembley, north London, and Eltham, south-east
London.
The latest arrests came yesterday morning when police swooped on
addresses in London. Three men detained were being held at an unnamed
London police station.
Earlier, on Friday night, two men were detained as they were about to
board an Ireland-bound ferry at Stranraer and on Saturday another man
was taken into custody in London. Those three were being held at
London's top security Paddington Green police station.
Detective Chief Superintendent Malcolm Bevington, head of
Staffordshire CID and who is leading the search for the Lichfield
killers, said it was too early to say whether those arrested yesterday
had any connection with the station shooting.
However, he said it was known the three men had been staying at the
Gresham Hotel in Nottingham the day before the murder. They were still
there at lunchtime on Friday and were at the Forest Lodge Hotel in
Nottingham about two hours after the attack.
The men were ''no fixed address types'' and at least one was thought
to be of Irish origin, he added.
They were being questioned by officers from Mr Bevington's
investigating team, who had travelled to London.
Private Davies, 19, was shot at close range with a handgun when two
assailants walked up to him and two other young recruits as they waited
to catch a train home for their first weekend leave since starting basic
training at nearby Whittington barracks.
The gunmen ran off along the railway track and were believed to have
made off in a waiting car.
Scotland Yard would say only that several men had been detained under
the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
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