UK police charge nine with bomb offences

Nine men will appear in a London court charged with plotting one or more bomb attacks in Britain later today, a week after police arrested them in a series of pre-dawn raids across England and Wales.

Police said they had charged the nine with plotting an explosion, or explosions, "of a nature likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property" between October 1 and November 20 this year.

The men were also charged with involvement in the preparation of an attack by having downloaded and researched methods and materials and scouted potential targets, said the police statement.

The suspects had also tested incendiary materials, said police.

On December 20, police arrested a dozen suspects in England and Wales, aged between 17 and 28, detaining them "on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism in the UK".

Britain is on high alert after upgrading its perceived terror threat level earlier this year.

A bombing in Stockholm earlier this month, in which a man blew up himself and his car in a busy district of the Swedish capital, has further heightened concerns because the man thought to have been the bomber was based in Britain.