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The owner of a traditional East End sweet shop today told of his shock after police stormed his business in a morning terror raid.

Police raided the sweet shop inside Hayfield Masala Indian restaurant in Mile End at just after 10am yesterday amid suspicions it had links to radical preacher Anjem Choudary.

Manager Somirle Ali, 31, said: “I was shocked. We have got nothing more terrifying here than sweets, ice cream and Indian food. We couldn’t be further from being a terror threat.”

The sweet shop was targeted because it had previously housed a YummyYummy sweet shop, a chain with alleged links to Choudary.

The space is understood to have been rented out to a relative, but he closed his shop in December.

Mr Ali said: “I didnt know what the police were expecting to find but there was nothing here.

“To be fair we did have some old Yummy Yummy sweet containers, but other than that we have nothing to do with them.”

Officers spent two hours searching store rooms, kitchen and a hostel above, but according to Mr Ali, took no evidence with them.

He said he suspected police had been carrying out surveillance on the shop, because Choudhary had come in to eat with a group of friends the previous evening.

The hate preacher was arrested along with eight others suspected of having connections to banned Islamist group Al Mujahiroun yesterday.

A number of commercial properties, including the Yummy Yummy sweet shop in New Road, Whitechapel, believed still to be run by a relative of Choudary, have been searched.