This is suspected would-be suicide bomber Yasin Hassan Omar whose arrest paralysed a Birmingham suburb.

Omar, a 24-year-old Somalian wanted in connection with last week's failed bombing attempts in London, was one of four men arrested in Birmingham by police and security services in dawn raids yesterday.

He was captured in a dramatic armed swoop by police and MI5 at a maisonette in Heybarnes Road, Hay Mills. He was felled with a Taser stun gun when officers stormed the safehouse where he had been hiding.

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More than 100 homes were evacuated as the bomb squad moved in, sparking fears he had been on the verge of blowing himself up. One report suggested he had a rucksack which was thrown clear through a window by an officer.

Neighbour Andy Wilkinson, an electrician, said he saw the suspect being led out in a white forensic suit with his hands bound by plastic ties.

"I looked out of the window and the road was full of armed police and they had got the road closed off.

"After ten or 15 minutes they brought a guy out. He looked like the darkest-skinned one in the photos of the four suspects released by the police - the one with the curly hair."

Omar was taken to Paddington Green high security police station in London by the Anti-Terrorist Branch.

Shortly after his arrest, at about 5am, three other men were detained in a raid two miles away in Bankdale Road, Washwood Heath. They were being held by police in Birmingham last night.

Neighbours said three Somalian men had been staying in the semi-detached property in Washwood Heath.

Resident Keith Stanley, aged 58, said the trio were taken away in handcuffs in separate vehicles.

"I don't think anybody in the street had any contact with them, from what I saw," he said.

"They didn't mix and nobody appears to have spoken to them."

Residents evacuated from Heybarnes Road were offered shelter at Saltley Community Centre as a police cordon was thrown around the area and bomb disposal and forensic teams moved into the property.

Last night, 15 hours after the raid, West Midlands Police said there had not been a controlled explosion and residents were being gradually allowed back although the cordon would remain in place while forensic examinations continued. "Forensic tests will continue at the address and at an address in Bankdale Road, Ward End," said a spokeswoman.

"At Heybarnes Road, one man was arrested. He was Tasered and taken into custody. A suspicious package was found but this was dealt with by the Bomb Disposal Unit but no explosion was necessary."

Peter Clarke, head of the Met's Anti-Terrorist Branch, last night confirmed that the man arrested in Birmingham was Omar. He is thought to have tried but failed to blow up a Tube train near Warren Street last Thursday.

He is the first of the July 21 suicide squad suspects to be caught. The three others include Muktar Said-Ibrahim, 27, whose picture has been released by police. Detectives fear they may be in possession of explosives.

Meanwhile, as the hunt for the trio continued, armed police last night raided a flat in Stockwell in London and it also emerged that the cell responsible for the July 7 attacks had access to more bombs.

Sixteen of the devices were found at Luton railway station in a car believed to have been rented by suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer, who blew himself up on a train at Aldgate on July 7.

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