MEMBERS of the Swindon Tamil Association have said they were shocked after terror police arrested a man in Swindon.

Police from London arrived in the town early on Tuesday to arrest the 51-year-old man.

According to Scotland Yard, the man from South London was arrested at an address he had been staying at in Swindon.

The news came as a surprise to the town's Tamil community.

Ram Thiagarajah, the president of Swindon Tamil Association, said: "We were all completely shocked when we heard the news. I'd been away for a few days so didn't really know about it till much later.

"To be honest, I am just surprised that something like this has happened here.

"From what I understand the man wasn't even from here. That makes the situation worse, and it paints the town in a bad light.

"All members of our association hold the view that we should always follow the law of the land, no matter what personal thoughts you have on such matters.

"As far as I know, the man had been arrested before and been out on bail, but he had been staying in Swindon for a while."

Swindon's Sri Lankan community is growing fast and last year was made up of more than 150 families.

"Our association has a variety of different communities in it," said Mr Thiagarajah. "We have Gujarati members, people from Kerela and the Malyali with us.

"They've joined us because they want to find out more about our culture and that's great. We're here to help our members integrate into society.

"I think to stop something like this happening in the future we need to have better communication in the community to stop everyone being tarnished with the same brush."

3:25pm Friday 9th May 2008

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