Iranian terror suspect tried to escape through elderly man's garden

Telegraph

09-05-2025

A pensioner has described how armed police burst into his home in Stockport as they pursued one of the Iranian terror suspects.
Undercover officers carrying automatic weapons arrested a 29-year-old man in the Heathbank Road area of Cheadle Hulme last Saturday afternoon. He was one of five male Iranian suspects arrested in a series of raids across the UK on suspicion of plotting an attack on the Israeli embassy in London.
Police had been watching the suspect in a local park when the order was given to move in and arrest him.
But the man fled and is believed to have tried to escape by running through the garden of a bungalow backing onto the park.
The resident, a man in his late 80s, described how officers came bursting into his home, even moving him out of the way as they searched for the suspect.
The man, who did not wish to be named, said it had happened extremely quickly but had been confusing and terrifying.
It is believed the suspect did not actually enter the house. He was arrested a short time later in a road nearby.
But officers pursuing the suspect and searching for clues are thought to have entered the man's garden and property.
The elderly resident told The Telegraph that someone, possibly a plain-clothes officer, 'came through the front door. I don't know how he managed to get in but he grabbed my arm and left bruises. I can't remember what the police were saying. It all happened so quickly.'
A neighbour described hearing 'what sounded like men shouting' from her back garden before police vans descended on the area and began blocking off the road.
Officers in balaclavas
Another resident said police officers wearing caps and balaclavas were preventing people from walking down the road and entering the park.
She said: 'I said our son was at the park and we had to get to him. We were told the children were safe – but we had to stand around waiting for over an hour and our son wasn't answering his phone.'
Locals described seeing the suspect sitting cross-legged on the ground with his hands behind his back and armed officers surrounding him.
He was one of five people arrested over the suspected Israeli embassy plot.
A 46-year-old man was arrested in west London; a 29-year-old in Swindon; a 40-year-old in Rochdale and another man in the Manchester area.
Four of the suspects, including the man arrested in Cheadle Hulme, remain in police custody.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, described the police and MI5 operation as one of the 'biggest counter-state threat and counter-terrorism operations that we have seen for years'.
It is thought the alleged plot involved gunmen launching a coordinated attack on the very tightly guarded Israeli embassy in Kensington, west London.
The Telegraph understands the alleged attack had been planned by a hardline group within Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as part of an attempt to derail nuclear peace talks with the US.
Counter-terrorism police obtained an extension that allows them to hold the suspects until Saturday, but can go back to court to obtain another seven days' detention before the men will have to be charged or released.