Two men aged 52 and 21 have been arrested in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, on suspicion of a terrorist plot.

Police said loud bangs would have been heard as officers gained entry to two addresses in the Savile Town area, and they reassured people that this was “part of the method of entry”.

Counter-terrorism Policing North-east, one of five such units in England and Wales, said the arrests had been pre-planned and were part of a “proactive, intelligence-led investigation”. The men have been detained at a police station in West Yorkshire for questioning.

Marianne Huison, the West Yorkshire police superintendent for the Kirklees area, said: “I understand our local communities will have concerns about this morning’s police activity but I want to offer my reassurance that we will continue to serve and protect the public of West Yorkshire.”

On Headfield Road, neighbours said they were woken up shortly after midnight by loud bangs they thought were bomb explosions.

Israr Hussain, 41, a taxi driver who lives a few doors from one of the arrested men, said: “I was woken up by a big bang and I looked out of the window and there was smoke filling the street. Police told us not to come near so I stayed inside and watched out of my window.

“There were armed police, all in black, with black face masks on, I’d say five to seven of them. I saw them take a young lad away. He was Asian and in his 20s, with a beard and shoulder-length hair, wearing western clothing. He wasn’t protesting or anything. They put him in an unmarked car and took him away.”

Zed Iqbal, 25, who lives a few houses up from where the younger man was arrested, said he was dismayed that Dewsbury was once again in the news for the wrong reasons.

“I feel upset that there’s always this bad light shining on Dewsbury. Every time we recover from something it feels like something bad happens again,” he said, referring to the arrest of one of the 7/7 bombers half a mile away in 2005.

Almost three years ago it emerged that another local teenager, 17-year-old Talha Asmal, had become Britain’s youngest suicide bomber when he blew himself up fighting for Isis.

Iqbal said most residents on Headfield Road knew each other but the detached house where the 21-year-old was arrested was rented. “There were people moving in and out constantly,” he said.

At the house a team of forensic officers could be seen searching through clothes on a rail in an upstairs bedroom. In the front yard two police officers looked under drains and began dismantling a small brick wall.