Updated at 1:15 a.m.: LONDON -- British counter-terrorism police on Thursday arrested two men aged 18 and 32 in east London in an operation that was aimed partly at protecting the London Olympics, sources told NBC News.
The two were detained on "suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism," the police said in a statement. Both were being held at a police station in central London, the statement added.
The detentions were not a result of a long-running investigation and it did not appear that those arrested were involved in a sophisticated plot, the sources said.
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Two separate addresses were searched in relation to the arrests, police told NBC News.
It can be assumed that the decision to make arrests rather than tale time to investigate further was made with the closeness of this summer's Olympics in mind, the sources said.
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British officials have beefed-up security measures ahead of the games, which are due to start in a month and have put the British capital in the world spotlight.
NBC News' Michele Neubert and Keir Simmons, and msnbc.com's F. Brinley Bruton contributed to this report.
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