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A "white supremacist" plot to kill minorities is thought to have been uncovered, police said yesterday.

A substance believed to be ricin and claimed to have been found in an old jam jar was being kept in what they thought to be a "bomb factory" in a terraced house.

Specialist officers found traces of the suspected ricin - 6,000 times more deadly than cyanide - after a swoop in the village of Burnopfield, Co Durham. The raid on Tuesday followed tracking of internet activity and an operation involving Special Branch and MI5.

Durham's assistant chief constable Mick Barton said: "We believe the people involved to be white supremacist extremists and one of our lines of inquiries is that they were going to target ethnic minorities. There was internet activity including the Anarchists' Cookbook traced to an address and that has given lines of inquiry in this country and abroad.

"White supremacists seem to hate an awful lot of people."

Officers were last night questioning two men.