Police carry out controlled explosion in Bristol

UK Police carried out a controlled explosion at a house in Bristol in the early hours of Friday morning after arresting a man on suspicion of terrorism offences.

Avon and Somerset Police said they evacuated 30 people from 14 homes in the suburb of Westbury-on-Trym before bomb disposal officers carried out the explosion at 2 a.m. Assistant Chief Constable Jackie Roberts said it followed the arrest of a 19-year-old from the area under anti-terrorism laws on Thursday afternoon.

"This is likely to be a prolonged, complex and sensitive inquiry which may take some time," she said in a statement. The arrest followed a "number of covert inquiries", she added, without elaborating.

Britain has been on high alert since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and the July 7, 2005 suicide bombings in London that killed 52 commuters.

Last year, a jeep was driven into an airport building in Glasgow, Scotland and set ablaze in what police said was a failed car bomb attack. That incident came 36 hours after detectives in London found two cars packed with fuel, gas tanks and nails.