London, Sep 2 (IANS) Anti-terrorism officials of Scotland Yard have arrested 14 men during overnight raids, with 12 of the suspects taken into custody from a 'Halal Chinese' restaurant in London.

The arrests came hours after Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan police's anti-terrorism branch, stating that the police and MI5 were thousands of British Muslims for suspected involvement in possible terrorist involvement.

Clarke said this in an interview to a BBC2 documentary, 'Al Qaeda: Time to Talk', which investigates British Muslim connections with the terror network.

The 14 arrests in London were made during raids that were described as "planned, intelligence-led operation". But the police said they were not connected to the alleged transatlantic jet bomb plot or the July 7 attacks in London.

The police said the men were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

Raids were also conducted in other parts of London.

The 'Halal Chinese' restaurant owner Madi Blyani told BBC: "It was surprising actually, because plenty of them suddenly came in all together. There were more than 50 or 60 of them.

"They suddenly came inside because they were suspicious of some of the customers, and they talked to them. They talked to them (for) more than one hour, two hours. And they arrested some of them. So it was obviously surprising for me, my staff, for everyone anyway."

Clarke said: "What we've learnt since 9/11 is that the threat is not something that's simply coming from overseas into Britain. What we've learnt, and what we've seen all too graphically and all too murderously, is that we have a threat which is being generated here within Britain."

Asked roughly how many Muslims were being looked at, Clarke said: "I don't want to go down the numbers game, I don't think it's helpful ... all I can say is that our knowledge is increasing and certainly in terms of broad description, the numbers of people who we have to be interested in, are into the thousands."

He added: "That includes a whole range of people, not just terrorists, not just attackers, but the people who might be tempted to support or encourage or to assist."