ANTI-terror police last night continued to question three men arrested after a raid on a Blackwood house.

The men were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

Police found three bottles of an unidentified substance in a shed in the back garden of a house on Waunllwyn Crescent during the raid last Wednesday.

The three men, two aged 24 and the other 41, were initially arrested on suspicion of drug offences by Gwent Police, but the Metropolitan Police Service’s Counter Terrorism Command took over the inquiry last Thursday and transferred them to a central London police station.

Police can detain the men for up to 28 days under the Terrorism Act.

Neighbours said they saw a forensic team combing the house and garden on Wednesday, taking clear plastic bags in and bringing things out in cardboard boxes, and a van was also taken away to be examined.

A resident said police told her to keep her doors and windows closed during the raid because a "nasty" substance had been found in a shed which had leaked.

Specialists from the fire service were called in to help police identify and remove the substance and two fire engines, an ambulance and an ambulance response vehicle also attended the incident.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said the inquiry was not linked to international terrorism.

The men are no longer facing drugs charges.