INTERNATIONAL British police shoot terrorism suspect

A man was wounded in his home after rumors of a toxic gas plot.
LONDON (AP) -- A raid on an east London house where anti-terrorism police shot and wounded a man was prompted by fears that a suspect had built a bomb designed to release a cloud of toxic chemicals, British police said Saturday.
Officers, many in protective clothing, were still conducting a detailed search of the row house where two brothers were detained Friday, police said. Police also searched the workplaces of the two men Saturday.
"We don't know yet if there is a device, but it is the focus of our searches and of the intelligence we had," said a police official, who agreed to discuss the case only if not quoted by name because of the sensitivity of the operation. "Intelligence indicated it may have a chemical component, possibly involving a toxic gas."
The official said the two arrested men both had criminal records, but had not previously been investigated by anti-terrorism officials.
Neither brother was believed to have links to the London transit bombings that killed 52 people last July or to any other known terrorist plot in Britain, the official said.
Lawyers for both men said their clients denied involvement in terrorist activities.
Police have declined to release details about the men. But their lawyers and neighbors in their ethnically mixed neighborhood described them as British-born Muslims and brothers.
What's next?
A British judge has given police authority to hold the men for questioning until Wednesday. Authorities could then apply for a further extension.
A 23-year-old man was under guard at Royal London Hospital while being treated for a shoulder wound and was expected to be released from the hospital today, police said. The other man, 20, was in custody at the high-security Paddington Green police station in north London.
Julian Young, an attorney for the younger man, denied any involvement in terrorism.
Kate Roxburgh, lawyer for the injured man, said her client also denied being involved in terrorism and said he was "lucky to still be alive."
"He wasn't asked to freeze, given any warning and didn't know the people in his house were police officers until after he was shot," she said.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission said an inquiry into the shooting -- standard procedure in Britain -- had begun.
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