THIS is the moment residents watched in horror as the threat of terrorism arrived on their doorstep in Southampton.

Captured by a neighbours' video camera, police officers wearing riot gear and body armour bundling four men suspected of terrorism offences into the back of a police van.

The four men aged between 26 and 34 were taken to separate police stations across the county after police raided a property in the Polygon area of the city yesterday morning.

Police would not comment about the ethnicity of the four men for fear of raising community tensions.

Twenty unarmed officers including some from the specially-trained Force Support Unit were involved in the operation codenamed Avon.

Eyewitnesses described how officers used a battering ram to enter the Victorian-style property that is split up into flats.

Scenes-of-crime officers were also involved in the raid and spent the day searching the property.

Last night bags and boxes of property along with a computer were taken from the address. A blue car was also towed away. Two uniformed officers remained on duty throughout the night.

As reported in later editions of yesterday's Daily Echo police swooped on an address on Kenilworth Road at 7.45pm.

Police confirmed that four men from the top-floor flat of the property were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000. The suspects, who could remain in custody for two weeks under the legislation, were taken away for questioning at undisclosed police stations.

City street rocked by terrorism arrests: See pages 2 & 3 of today's Daily Echo.