13:39

Midlands Today reports that a team of scaffolders is going to the house in Heybarnes Road. Chig feels a photography expedition coming on...



13:34

Neighbours in Hay Mills tell BBC Midlands Today that the man arrested was from a house inhabited by a family. Some people 'think' they are Somali, but no one seems to know them. The man from the chippy reports that they may have served the arrested man in the last few days, because when he left the shop, someone commented that he 'looked like one of the bombers in the photos'. Hmmm.



13.11

Daniel Sandford on BBC TV News says the identity of the arrested man ISN'T yet confirmed. How confusing.





12:57

ITN reports that the man arrested in Birmingham is Yassin Hasan Omar, one of the two named suspects (above). He is Somali. It's not clear yet if he is from Birmingham.
Background info: There are 4,000 Somalis living here, including one of Chig's next door neighbours.



12:39

ITN confirms that the man arrested in Hay Mills and taken to London is one of the four bomb suspects, and that he was carrying a rucksack when arrested, containing explosives similar to those found in London. Neighbours say that the man had been stripped naked and wrapped in a foil cape when he emerged from the house.



11:18

Accounts from residents in Hay Mills.



09:03

Bankdale Road is in Ward End, near to Alum Rock, and not quite Washwood Heath, as Five Live initially reported at 07:00. (The confusion is understandable, as Bankdale Road is very close to Washwood Heath Road, to the North of this map.) If any parts of Birmingham could be said to be 'politically Muslim', it is these two areas. Small Heath and Washwood Heath shocked the Labour Party in Birmingham a few years ago, by electing five city councillors from the PJP, the People's Justice Party. This was, to its detractors, a single issue party, focused on supporting Pakistan against India in the disputed region of Kashmir. The PJP lost its last two seats on the city council last year and seems to have faded away, electorally at least. Ward End is also to the East of the city, directly North of Hay Mills/Small Heath, but still South of the M6.



08:33

Suggestions now that the solo man was tasered because he had a "device" attached to him, and he was in the bathroom. (The device will probably turn out to be an electric razor.) The man from the local chippy reports that the house belongs to a Somali family. If this is the chip shop I think it is, it's just about the most prominent building in Hay Mills, which is so small it hardly exists. If people know Hay Mills at all, they'll know it as a small 3-way traffic island, which is where traffic coming from my direction (the city) joins the six lane Coventry Road which leads out to the airport (and Coventry, oddly enough). I've never met anyone who claims to live in Hay Mills, but it does have a sign on that roundabout, so it must exist. It's right next to Small Heath, which is a predominantly Asian area, mainly Muslim, mainly Pakistani. Small Heath is mostly parallel rows of 100 year-old houses off one main road, with two other notable landmarks which dominate the area. One is a huge Asda and the other is St. Andrew's; the home ground of Birmingham City FC. Indeed, us Villa fans often 'hilariously' refer to the Blues as 'Small Heath'.



08:28

The three other people were arrested in Bankdale Road.



08:08

Police are now evacuating Heybarnes Road and moving the cordon back, possibly to carry out a controlled explosion on the package found in the house were the solo man was arrested.



08:03

BBC TV News confirms that the man tasered and arrested in Heybarnes Road in Small Heath (it's next to Hay Mills) IS indeed one of the four bomb suspects. He was arrested at 04:30 and is currently at (or on his way to) Paddington Green police station in London.

The other three arrests in Birmingham were in Washwood Heath. They have not been taken to London, which increases the suspicion that the man who has is one of the bombers.



07.54

Woke up an hour ago and heard the news that four men have been arrested here in Birmingham under the Terrorism Act 2000. One of them was reported to be from Hay Mills, which is about three minutes' drive from Chig's house. It's thought that this may be one of the four men being sought after last Thursday's failed bombing attempts in London. Chig has dragged himself out of bed and is currently glued to the telly.

More later, no doubt.


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