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The anti-terrorist police swoop on the M6 came as the man and woman drove through Cheshire last night. According to an eyewitness officers forced the suspects to the side of the motorway before taking them into custody.

Peter Whitehead said three unmarked police cars brought traffic to a halt on the motorway. “In front of them were a couple of other unmarked police cars and they forced a car onto the hard shoulder and got the occupants out and, as far as I can see, arrested them,” he told the BBC.

Scotland Yard said they were arrested by officers from the Counter Terrorism Commands from London and the West Midlands in connection with the incidents in London and Glasgow.

Police continued to search properties in Liverpool today after arresting a 26-year-old man overnight at a property just off Penny Lane in the Allerton area of Liverpool.

In Scotland, Strathclyde police were searching a number of houses today in the Renfrewshire area of Glasgow. Police cordoned off Neuk Crescent in Houston, which is a fifteen-minute drive from the airport, while forensic experts examined a property.

Maya Logan, 29, who lives in Neuk Crescent, said she had seen a vehicle similar to the one that rammed the airport doors outside the house being searched yesterday morning. “I have seen a man washing his Jeep. I can’t remember the colour or the make, but it was a big 4x4 Jeep,” she said.

Two men were already in custody in Glasgow after yesterday’s Jeep attack on the airport. One of those men is in a critical condition after being engulfed in flames outside the airport.

The men were subdued and arrested after driving a vehicle into the doors of the Glasgow airport terminal at around 3.15pm. The vehicle then burst into flames, but there was no explosion despite the men attempting to light petrol containers.

Some flights from the airport resumed today but thousands of passengers were stranded, waiting for flights in the roads surrounding the terminal building.

As part of the heightened threat level, greater use will be made of police stop and search powers and security at airports and transport hubs has been tightened. People attending the memorial concert for Diana, Princess of Wales, have been warned to expect delays at Wembley Stadium while thorough searches are carried out.

Police have linked the Glasgow airport attack to the discovery of two cars laden with gas cylinders, petrol and nails in Central London.

The first of two Mercedes was discovered outside the Tiger Tiger bar on Haymarket near Piccadilly Circus. It was apparently primed to explode as hundreds of people left the club early on Friday morning.

A second car with a similar cargo was discovered later on Friday. It had been parked nearby before being towed away. There was enough gas and petrol in the two cars to have created a massive fireball, which could have killed hundreds of people.

Mr Brown today denied accusations that the attempted bombings were a direct consequence of the UK’s military activity.

“Irrespective of Iraq, irrespective of Afghanistan, irrespective of what is happening in different parts of the world, we have an international organisation trying to inflict the maximum damage on civilian life in pursuit of a terrorist cause that is totally unacceptable to most people,” he told the BBC's Sunday AM programme.

“We will not yield, we will not be intimidated and we will not allow anyone to undermine our British way of life,” he said. “We are dealing with a long-term threat. It is not going to go away in the next few weeks or months.”

The new Prime Minister insisted that the police made good progress overnight and that tighter security measures had been successfully implemented. “Everything is being done in our power... to protect people’s lives,” he said. “We will have to be constantly vigilant. We will have to be alert at all times.”

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