Police in The Netherlands have made seven anti-terror arrests in three cities, as security forces ringed government offices in The Hague

BBC News:

Six men and a woman were detained in raids in The Hague, Amsterdam and nearby Almere, the national prosecutor's office said.

They include one man recently acquitted of planning terror attacks.

Police did not comment on reports of gunshots in The Hague during Friday's arrest operation.

Riot police moved in to strengthen security at the Binnenhof castle in the city where Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and others have offices.

The BBC's Geraldine Coughlan reports that the arrests come a day after renewed threats against two members of parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders.

Both are outspoken critics of radical Islam.

Among those held on Friday was Samir Azzouz, a Dutch teenager of Moroccan origin who had been acquitted in April of plotting attacks on Amsterdam airport, government buildings and a nuclear reactor.

"He is suspected of preparing attacks, together with other persons, on several politicians and government buildings," the prosecutor's office said on Friday.

No details of the other six suspects, said to be aged between 18 and 30, were immediately given.

The Netherlands has been on a terror alert since the London bombings in July.

Police were injured by a hand grenade in The Hague last year when they arrested two terror suspects following the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

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