British police officers searched an Islamic school in east England on Saturday in nationwide anti-terror raids.

Scotland Yard said police officers searched Jameah Islameah, an independent school for Muslim boys aged 11 to 16 in Mark Cross, Crowborough, east Sussex.

A three-mile exclusion zone has been set up around the site, but no arrests have been made.

The search followed anti-terror raids on late Friday and early Saturday, in which fourteen people were arrested by London police in south and east London.

Scotland Yard said the arrests were not in connection with the alleged transatlantic airplane bomb plot at Heathrow Airport last month or the July 7 underground attacks last year.

Two people were held in east London, in what Scotland Yard described as a pre-planned, intelligence-led operation, and another 12 were arrested at a restaurant in south London on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said, "The arrests in south and east London follow many months of surveillance and investigation in a joint operation involving the Anti-Terrorist Branch, Special Branch and the Security Service."

A spokeswoman for Home Secretary John Reid said he had been "kept fully informed of the developments about the counter-terror operation".

Thousands of British Muslims are being watched by police and MI5 on suspicion of possible terrorist involvement, The Daily Telegraph quoted Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch, as saying on Saturday's edition.

They were being looked at as they might be involved directly or indirectly in supporting terrorism, he said.

Source: Xinhua