Former anti-terror chief's book blocked

London: The attorney general has blocked the publication of a book by Britain's former head of counter-terrorism, Andy Hayman, that gives the inside story of the fight against Islamist extremism.

Lord Scotland stepped in at the last minute to obtain an injunction preventing The Terrorist Hunters from going on sale on Thursday.

The move came even though copies of the book had been sent two months ago to the Crown Prosecution Service, the Cabinet Office, MI5 and MI6 and the Metropolitan Police Authority.

Its author, the retired Scotland Yard assistant commissioner Andy Hayman, gives a behind-the-scenes account of the July 7 attacks, the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and the fight against terror.

He wrote about the murder of the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko and his meetings with top-level political and intelligence officials.

Thousands of copies of the 372-page book were delivered to bookshops nationwide ahead of its publication yesterday.

An advisory notice highlighting the injunction, granted by an unnamed high court judge, was circulated to newspaper editors at 11.45 last night.

The full reasons for the injunction cannot be published for legal reasons linked to continuing criminal proceedings.

The Times newspaper serialised sections of the Bantam Press book, co-written by the former BBC home affairs correspondent Margaret Gilmore.

Last week, the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, complained that he was not given a preview of the book's contents.