London Evening Standard/London

Police smashed a suspected plot to launch a major terror attack in London after four men were held by heavily-armed officers.

The Met acted on intelligence that the men may have had access to firearms, prompting fears of an attack similar to the Kenyan mall atrocity.

Two men aged 25 were arrested in a “hard stop” in Mansell Street near Tower Bridge on Sunday night after officers blew out the tyres of their car with shotgun rounds and rammed the vehicle. One man, aged 29, was held at his home in Peckham after a stake-out by undercover officers.

Police also seized a 28-year-old man outside an Iranian restaurant in Westbourne Grove. Around eight police cars surrounded the Alounak restaurant as the suspect came out.

Toby Lewis, 26, a waiter at Nando’s in Westbourne Grove, said: “One guy had been pushed against the wall of Planet Organic and you just had cops all around him, holding him there. They were shouting at him. No one in the restaurant was allowed to come for about an hour while the police were there.”

A waitress from Alounak, who asked not to be named, said: “A customer from our restaurant was arrested. He had finished and was just waiting outside when the police arrested him.”

Neighbours at the flat in Peckham Hill Street said officers arrived at around 7pm. A neighbour said: “A young guy who looked Indian was taken away. I have seen the people in the flat from time to time.”

Another said: “We are very shocked by all this. There were undercover police parked outside then a van came and they piled in. It is all quite scary.”

Witnesses in a block of flats overlooking Mansell Street in Aldgate told how police rammed a car before running out into the busy road to stop the suspects. They said there were two to three police cars on the main road.

One resident said: “The fire brigade was here, then there were people running out with torches. One of my neighbours said police rammed the car and then jumped out.”

The men are understood to have been under surveillance by police and MI5 for some time. Senior officers ordered the simultaneous arrests in the interests of public safety.

The suspects are understood to be different nationalities, though at least one is British.

The men were held in co-ordinated raids in what the Met described as a “pre-planned, intelligence led operation.” They were being questioned at a south London police station yesterday on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.