The Enforcer, a 2am raid and an angry community

Just before 2am yesterday, "the Enforcer" arrived in Finsbury Park, north London. The Enforcer is the tactful nickname given by the Metropolitan Police to the battering ram used to gain entry to premises when more gentle means fail.

On this occasion, the Enforcer had air support in the shape of a low-flying helicopter armed with powerful spotlights and was backed up on the ground by several dozen heavily protected members of the Metropolitan Police territorial support group. The raid on the North London Central Mosque had begun.

Acutely aware of the potential reverberations that a raid of this type might cause, senior Scotland Yard officers contacted leaders of the Muslim community to assure them the holiness of the building would be respected. Inside the mosque, officers protected their feet ­ but did not remove their shoes ­ and acted under guidance from Muslim colleagues.

But as they followed the Enforcer through the wooden doors they were conscious that these were the same doors through which Richard Reid, Zacharias Moussaoui and Feroz Abbasi, one of the Britons interned by the Americans in Cuba, had also passed. And they were aware that the mosque was the home of the radical cleric Abu Hamza, who has publicly backed Osama bin Laden.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Trotter of Scotland Yard said the raid was "absolutely necessary". The Yard did not deny that it was taking place as a consequence of the discovery of the poison ricin in a police raid in nearby Wood Green two weeks ago.

Inside the mosque, a large building with a shop selling religious artefacts and clothes, a canteen, two prayer halls, many rooms and offices and sleeping accommodation, police found seven men ­ six North Africans and one from Eastern Europe ­ all of whom were taken away for questioning. An exhaustive search began under the careful watch of the anti-terrorist squad and bags of paperwork, files and documentation, including passports and identity cards, were taken away. Police also seized computers and computer disks and, it is believed, some of the recordings made of Abu Hamza's weekly sermons.

Mr Trotter later made clear the anti-terrorist squad had been looking for particular documents and for individuals who were staying at the mosque ­ the result of intelligence gathered during the Wood Green raid and other anti-terrorist work. The search was expected to continue until later today. He stressed that Abu Hamza ­ who was not at the mosque at the time of the raid ­ was not part of the operation.

Scotland Yard did not deny suggestions that there were Algerians among those who were arrested. The Algerian community in Finsbury Park has grown in size recently. There are many Halal butchers and cafés selling North African food. But although a large number of Algerians attend the mosque, many prefer the more moderate establishment on the other side of Seven Sisters Road.

Some of those who arrived yesterday at the mosque to pray did so on the rainswept pavement outside. Mohammed Meftah, who runs a coffee shop and worships at the mosque frequently, said he was upset at not being allowed to pray. "I listen to Abu Hamza but he's just a preacher, you don't have to do what he says," he said. "We do not mean people harm and if you kill people you do not go to paradise."

But others were more supportive of Abu Hamza. Abu Javed, a security guard from east London, said he did not see what was wrong with many of the cleric's views. "The thing is I don't agree with democracy anyway," he said. "It never works." He was wearing a T-shirt bearing a quotation that said the world had been split into two camps: those who followed Islam and those who did not. It was attributed to bin Laden.

"I agree with some of the things he says," Abu Javed said. "You have to fight back against those that fight you." He pointed to the mosque: "This is an outrage ­ it's an act of terrorism."