Yeah. I've just had a bloke literally outside my window kicking off on police in an unmarked car about them "arresting my brother". He went round the corner but a few patrol cars arrived a few seconds later. Not been that many police hovering round here since they finished their big efforts to clean up Cheetham Hill a bit, just after I'd moved to this part of Manchester.
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Head of counter terrorism in the UK has given another statement on what's going on.
The high pace and rapid progress of this investigation is continuing. There were three more arrests overnight. We now have 11 men in custody. There are 17 searches either concluded or continuing on various addresses, largely in the north-west of the country.
We are getting a greater understanding of the preparation of the bomb. There is still much more to do. There will be more arrests. There will be more searches but the greater clarity and progress has led JTAC, the independent body which assesses threat, to the judgment that an attack is no longer imminent.
You would have heard consequently the prime minister’s announcement that the threat level has moved from critical to severe which of course still means that an attack is highly likely. I think therefore this weekend members of the public will be wondering what that means in terms of the events they will be going to on a sunny bank holiday weekend.
For practical reasons and precautionary reasons, we made the decision that the resources that we had planned for this weekend’s events will continue. They will still see that high level of policing presence; some armed, some unarmed.
Once we get past the weekend we are going to look forward to stepping down the extra resources we have put in place over the last week. The military support we have had over the last few days under Operation Temperer, [we] will start to phase that out as well.
The last thing I would like to say to members of the public is there is still a severe threat level. If you see something you are worried about or know somebody you are worried about, please do not hesitate: please act and please call us on the anti-terrorism hotline – 0800 789321.
(Sourced via Guardian's livefeed)
Seems like last night's arrests have given them the confidence that they can dial down a bit but they're still after more people in connection.
Not sure if it made the news much, possibly not judging from twitter stuff circulating, but the children who go to a local mosque here in Cheetham Hill walked into town to lay some flowers in St.Ann's Square. [edit: seems to be an autocorrect going on here?] Here's some of them coming down Cheetham Hill Road:
