Met police arrest four men over alleged Syria jihadist kidnap plot A rebel fighter in Aleppo - one of the pictures taken by the photojournalist John Cantlie, who was kidnapped by Islamist militants last July and held for a week in captivity. Photograph: John Cantlie/AFP/Getty Four men have been arrested by detectives investigating travel to Syria "in support of alleged terrorist activity." A 33-year-old man was arrested at Gatwick airport on Wednesday afternoon as he attempted to fly out of the UK, the Metropolitan police said. Three other men, aged 18, 31 and 22, were arrested in early-morning raids on addresses in east London on Thursday. A police spokesman said: "They are all in custody at a south London police station where they will be interviewed by officers from MPS [Metropolitan police service] counter-terrorism command." Searches are continuing at three residential addresses in east London. Wednesday's arrests follow those of Jubayer Chowdhury and Shajul Islam last year. Chowdhury, 24, was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan police's counter-terrorism command at Heathrow airport in November after arriving on a flight from Bahrain and is now facing charges in connection with the alleged plot. Islam, 26, a trainee NHS doctor, who studied at St Bartholomew's and a University of London Hospital, is also accused of being part of an extremist group that held the photojournalist John Cantlie, who worked for various newspapers including the Sunday Times, and a Dutch freelance photographer, Jeroen Oerlemans, for a week in the war-torn state. Islam, from Stratford, east London, was arrested at Heathrow airport in October as he arrived back in the UK with his wife and one-year-old daughter on a flight from Egypt. He is accused of being a doctor for the jihadist group that kidnapped the journalists and held them at a camp in Syria. Islam is in custody, pending a trial later this year.