Third day of police terror search

Police are continuing to search the Jameah Islameah school

Police searches of properties in connection with an anti-terrorism inquiry have entered a third day.

Scotland Yard said cordons remain in place at a Sussex Islamic school and 17 residential addresses in London.

Officers holding 14 men arrested in raids in London on Friday night have been given more time to question them.

Sussex Police, meanwhile, said the school has been used by its officers and staff in their roles as diversity trainers to the rest of the force.

A spokeswoman said they were not "embarrassed" by the training but will be reviewing the practice.

"This has involved a series of one-day visits to the school by groups of two or three trainers on up to 15 occasions over more than a year," a spokeswoman said.

"This work supports current developments in police training to take advantage of the resources available to us in the community to improve our knowledge and awareness of the many diverse communities that we serve in Sussex."

Lake trawled

Twelve of the arrests - on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism - were at a south London Chinese restaurant.

Warrants were granted to further detain three suspects until Wednesday and the other 11 until Friday.

Profile: Jameah Islameah School 'not involved in terror'

Scotland Yard said the arrests were not connected to the alleged transatlantic jet bomb plot or the 7 July attacks.

The men are being held at London's high-security Paddington Green police station.

Sussex Police said searches at the Jameah Islameah Islamic school in Mark Cross, near Crowborough, could take weeks but said no arrests had been made there.

A lake within the grounds of the school will also be trawled.

The school has been registered with the Charity Commission since 1994.

The commission said it was seeking a meeting with the school's trustees to discuss the police action and other administrative matters.

"The commission has had concerns about the charity arising from the trustees failure to submit its accounts and statutory returns on time," it said in a statement.

"It also has concerns following the Ofsted Report in December 2005, which concluded that in many respects it did not meet the required standards for registration as an independent school."

In a separate operation at the weekend two men were arrested in anti-terror raids in Manchester.

The pair were detained under the Terrorism Act and three addresses in the Cheetham Hill area were searched.

Greater Manchester Police said a court warrant allowed the force to hold the men until Friday.