Officers from Essex Police arrested a 27-year-old man at Stansted Airport this morning (Aug 4), on suspicion of possession of false identity documents with improper intention, as he was attempting to leave the country.

The man has since been further arrested by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command on suspicion of engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism.

He remains in custody in a central London police station pending further investigations and officers are searching a residential address in north west London.

The incident follows a hoax bomb threat at the airport just before 8pm on Friday evening (July 31).

Army bomb disposal officers were called after a suspected pipe bomb was detected by cargo security scanners as it was about to be loaded onto a FedEx flight. Passenger flights were not affected.

A Stansted spokesperson said: “A cordon was put in place while extra checks were carried out. The incident was stood down shortly after midnight.”

It is unknown whether the two incidents are related.