8 Arrested in British Hunt for IRA Bombers; 2 Held After Arms Seizure

Police hunting IRA bombers arrested eight people Wednesday, a day after the dramatic arrest of two men and seizure of guns and explosives at an apartment in north London.

All 10 people are being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Scotland Yard would not say where the suspects were arrested or whether they were men or women. None of the 10 were identified.

The arrests came in the investigation of a bombing outside Harrods department store that slightly wounded four people Jan. 28. The bomb exploded after a telephoned warning from a man saying he was with the Irish Republican Army, which is fighting British rule in Northern Ireland.

In Tuesday’s raid, police said they found a “substantial” amount of weapons and explosives in the apartment where the two men were arrested.

One of the men fired a pistol at anti-terrorist police as they stormed into the house in the Stoke Newington district, Scotland Yard said in a statement. Officers did not fire back and no one was shot, it said.

Neighbors said the face of one of the arrested men was covered in blood and bruises as he was dragged by police onto the sidewalk. The police statement said one man suffered a minor head injury while he was being arrested and was treated at a hospital and released.

The arrest came after police released to news media enhanced videotape pictures of two men outside Harrods just before the bomb exploded.

Four bombs have exploded in London this year, injuring a total of 22 people. Last year, four people were killed and 146 wounded by 27 bombs in London.