Police have arrested seven men following yesterday's raid on a north London mosque.

Weapons found included an illegal electric stun gun and a CS gas canister. A blank-firing pistol was also seized along with hundreds of suspected forged or stolen passports, ID and credit cards.

The asylum status of suspects is yet to be confirmed - five are Algerians, one is a Somali and another Albanian.

One is said to be a "hugely significant figure" in the ricin poison plot uncovered two weeks ago.

Scotland Yard has insisted that the swoop on the controversial Finsbury Park mosque was carried out in a "sensitive" way.

The mosque has been a focus for concerns over the activity of Islamic extremists since 1996 but the radical Muslim cleric, sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri, was not arrested.