The 114 people arrested for allegedly planning to target a power station were released on bail today after many of their homes were raided while they were in custody. None of them has been charged.
Scores of officers raided a school in Sneinton, Nottingham, yesterday, saying the suspects posed "a serious threat" to the safe running of the nearby Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant.
Those arrested have been interviewed and released on bail, a spokeswoman for Nottinghamshire police said today.
She added: "From the information gathered, police believe that those arrested were planning a period of prolonged disruption to the safe running of Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station."
A police spokesman said that while the group was in custody "a number of premises were searched". Items recovered from the raids included bolt cutters and equipment that could be used to tie people to machinery.
The properties searched included a flat above Nottingham's Sumac Centre, which provides resources and a meeting place for groups campaigning on climate change and other issues. A spokesman for the centre said he knew nothing about a planned protest.
More than 200 officers from Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire and British Transport police were involved in the arrests at the Iona school, Sneinton, shortly after midnight yesterday.
Neighbours described how 20 police vans and a number of cars swooped on the school grounds in the early hours. Those arrested were held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass and criminal damage.
Richard Moore, a teacher at the school, said it had been damaged in the raid and that no one had permission to hold a meeting there.
"We had, and have, no knowledge of these activities and any access to the premises was completely unauthorised," he said. "We are distressed by the level of damage that has been done to the school and about the disruption of both school and nursery provision.
"We are asking the police for a full account of how access to the premises was obtained. Once we know this, we will be conducting our own inquiry into the security of the school site."
A police spokesman said "specialist equipment" recovered during the raid led them to believe the coal-fired Ratcliffe power station was the intended target.
The force said some of the suspects were linked to a group that had protested at Kingsnorth power station, in Kent, Heathrow airport and Drax power station, in North Yorkshire.
The spokesman said: "Information received during the operation indicates that a number of those arrested may be linked to a group of climate change protesters who have set up climate camps."
A spokesman for Camp for Climate Action, which has protested at both power stations, Heathrow airport and the G20 summit in London earlier this month, refused to comment.
The Ratcliffe-on-Soar site is run by energy firm E.ON, which has been forced to deal with protests by environmental campaigners in the past. On the Camp for Climate Action website, the group pledged to "keep a close eye" on E.ON.
It was previously targeted by members of Eastside Climate Action, although the group denied any involvement in the latest suspected plot.
Last October, activists occupied part of Kingsnorth following an amphibious invasion. A year earlier, a team climbed to the top of its chimney stack.
A spokeswoman for E.ON said: "We can confirm that Ratcliffe power station was the planned target of an organised protest. While we understand that everyone has a right to protest peacefully and lawfully, this was clearly neither of those things so we will be assisting the police with their investigations into what could have been a very dangerous and irresponsible attempt to disrupt an operational power plant."
The scale of the raid has prompted concerns. John Clarke, chairman of Nottinghamshire Police Authority, said he was surprised by the scale of the operation.
"The annoying thing is that they can find so many officers to work on a bank holiday," he told the Nottingham Evening Post. "It does amaze me, when I have been dealing for two days over the weekend with antisocial behaviour and no one is available."
The Nottingham South MP, Alan Simpson, questioned whether the operation was proportionate to the threat. "The scale of it makes people think we are dealing with a major terrorist incident," he told the BBC. "My worry is that what we are talking about, in practice, something much smaller."