UK police make fifth terror arrest following Glasgow attack

Glasgow, Scotland: Police searched several houses near Glasgow's airport and made a fifth arrest on Sunday in connection with a fiery attack on its main terminal and foiled car bombings in London, which the prime minister Gordon Brown suggested were carried out by terrorists linked to Al Qaida.

A fuel-filled jeep was rammed into Scotland's busiest airport in what police said was a terrorist attack linked to failed car bombings in London.

The arrests included a 26-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman seized on a major highway in northern England on Saturday night and another man, 26, who was detained in Liverpool, in the northwest of England, on Sunday.

Those arrests were in addition to two men, who witnesses described as Asians, who were taken into custody on Saturday immediately after they slammed a Jeep Cherokee into Glasgow airport and set the vehicle ablaze.

The attack, which caused five slight injuries and damaged the airport entrance, came barely 36 hours after two car bombs loaded with fuel, gas canisters and nails were found on the busy streets of central London primed to detonate.

Police said the man arrested in Liverpool was seized in connection with both events and said warrants were being used to search two addresses near Liverpool.

Following the series of threats, Britain raised its national security level to "critical", meaning the risk of another attack was imminent, and increased security at airports.

"We are dealing with a long-term threat. It is not going to go away in the next few weeks or months," Prime Minister Gordon Brown, himself a Scot who took office only last Wednesday, said in a sombre appraisal of the terrorist threat facing Britain.