London: Amid increased security at British airports, train stations and on city streets, a bomb disposal team carried out a controlled explosion on Tuesday on a suspicious car parked outside a mosque in Glasgow.
Strathclyde Police Superintendent Stewart Daniels told the British Broadcasting Corp. there was "absolutely no specific information" of a threat from the vehicle but that it had been detonated as a precaution.
Police have also carried out four controlled explosions at a Scottish hospital linked to at least one of those arrested and at a mosque in the biggest city, Glasgow.
Fearing further attacks, police have banned cars and other vehicles from directly approaching airports.
With Britons on alert and security measures beefed up at transport hubs, there have been a number of security scares.
Police were also investigating an attack on an Asian news agent early Tuesday in Glasgow, in which a car was rammed into the shop and caught fire or set ablaze, and the torching of a real estate office next to a mosque near Edinburgh on Monday.
Police have yet to establish if either attack was racially motivated, but Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, said tension was increasing.
"It suggests there is a rising feeling of hostility where people feel comfortable in the company of others acting in a grotesque fashion," he said.
Britain's security threat level has been set at "critical" since two car bombs were found in central London on Friday and members of a suspected AlQaida cell attacked an airport in Scotland on Saturday.
