A RADICAL preacher who is a former Southampton student is understood to be one of the nine men arrested today as part of an investigation into Islamist terrorism.

Anjem Choudary, who studied medicine at the University of Southampton before switching to commercial law, is thought to have been seized in London.

The men were arrested on suspicion of being members of, or supporting, a banned organisation, the Metropolitan Police said.

Al-Muhajiroun is understood to be the banned organisation in question.

Counter-terrorism police are searching 18 addresses across London, and one in Stoke-on-Trent.

The men, who are aged between 22 and 51, were arrested as “part of an ongoing investigation into Islamist-related terrorism and are not in response to any immediate public safety risk”, Scotland Yard said.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Choudary said he has no sympathy for Alan Henning, a volunteer aid worker who was captured in Syria.

Islamic State (IS) militants threatened to behead the 47-year-old in a video released earlier this month, which showed the murder of another British man, David Haines.

Choudary is reported to have said: “In the Qaran it is not allowed for you to feel sorry for non Muslims. I don't feel sorry for him.”

Choudary, who co-founded the now banned group al-Muhajiroun, has had contact with a number of worshippers who have later gone on to be convicted of terrorism.

The group, which has changed names a number of times, was banned in the UK in 2010, and a study suggested that in the preceding 12 years 18 per cent of Islamic extremists convicted of terror offences in the UK had current or former links with it.