THE police station at Marlborough found itself at the centre of attention last week when police arrested suspected al-Qaeda terrorist Sajid Badat in Gloucester.

High-security cells behind the building were used for the first time since the new police station was built six years ago.

In a hush-hush operation the man arrested by police in Gloucester was whisked to Marlborough and kept in the secure compound.

Police have always been reluctant to give information about the building behind the police station.

However, it has been revealed to the Gazette that the heavily fortified building was designed to resist attack.

Following the threat of the escalation of IRA terrorist activities in the UK in the 1990s, the Government instructed that each region should have high-security holding cells for suspected terrorists.

The opportunity was taken while the new Marlborough police station was on the drawing board to incorporate a virtual fortress in its back yard.

And it was there last Wednesday that Gloucester police with an escort of armed Wiltshire officers took suspect Badat, who was arrested in a raid on his home in St James' Street in the city.

The move would have gone unnoticed had it not been for the presence of armed police officers at the vehicle entrance to the police station.

One former soldier spotted the armed officers and contacted the Gazette.

He said: "There are three police officers outside the police station and they appear to be holding H&K's (Heckler and Koch sub machine guns)."

Gazette reporter Nigel Kerton walked past the police station and noticed the three officers manning the side entrance barrier although he could not see if they had weapons under their fluorescent coats.

Staff in the police station had been told to make no comment and two local officers were sent out to stand at the vehicle entrance. Shortly after 4.30pm officers stopped the traffic in George Lane to allow two cars out of the police station, a plain car and a marked police car.

Later New Scotland Yard confirmed that the suspect had been transferred to the high-security jail at Paddington Green, London.

It is believed that while Badat was at Marlborough he was questioned by officers from the SO 13 anti-terrorist unit.