Terror hunt in Britain: Suspect escapes wearing a burqa

LONDON: The British government defended its terror prevention measures on Monday after a Somali-born suspect escaped surveillance by putting on a burqa during a visit to a mosque.

Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed, 27, who was subject to an order restricting his movements, entered a mosque in London on Friday wearing Western-style clothes but CCTV images showed him leaving disguised as a woman, with his face and body fully covered.

He is understood to have received training and fought overseas for the Somalia-based Shebab, the al Qaeda-linked militants who launched the attack on a Nairobi shopping mall in September in which at least 67 people were killed.

Home Secretary Theresa May, the interior minister, said that the suspect did not pose a "direct threat" to Britain.

"The reason he was put on a TPIM in the first place was to prevent his travel to support terrorism overseas," she said in a statement to parliament.

Mohamed is under a Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (TPIM) notice, which was imposed primarily to prevent overseas travel.