THE al Qaida terror suspects arrested in Clitheroe are registered as students at Liverpool’s John Moores University, according to reports.

But the men were working full time for a Merseyside-based security firm which had led to them stay at the Brooklyn Guest House, Pimlico Road, Clitheroe, while working as security guards at the town’s Homebase store.

They were arrested at the DIY store last Wednesday in a series of police swoops across the North West which saw 12 people held.

Over the weekend a 18-year-old man was released into the custody of the UK Borders agency.

Police were granted a further week to detain the remaining 11 men, who range in age from 22 to 41.

National reports say the arrests were made by police investigating a plot to carry out a terror attack in the North West, possibly against the Trafford Centre or a Manchester city centre nightclub.

Of the 12 men initially arrested, 10 hold student visas and one is a UK-born Briton.

The Daily Telegraph has reported that the Clitheroe suspects were working full-time for the security firm, despite being registered as students.

Former bosses expressed surprised that the pair could be suspected of links to terrorism, apparently describing one as ‘one of the most likeable people you could ever meet’.

Meanwhile, Burnley-born Immigration Minister Phil Woolas has pledged to fast-track moves to introduce compulsory ID cards for foreign students.

Investigators are said to have been keeping the terror suspects under surveillance as part of an inquiry codenamed Operation Pathway.