A TEENAGER arrested by anti-terror police in Dewsbury was being quizzed today.

There were reports that the 16-year-old was detained as he left Westborough High School, where he had taken his GCSE exams.

The youth is one of two people being quizzed by West Yorkshire Police and MI5 officers about international terrorism.

He and a 21-year-old Bradford man, who was held at Manchester Airport, are in custody at unknown police stations.

Meanwhile, police are continuing to search two houses in Savile Town, Dewsbury, and three in Bradford.

It is understood the arrested teenager is the grandson of an international renowned Islamic scholar, Maulana Yakub Qasmi, who has written many books in Urdu and Arabic.

His grandfather's house, which has a large library, was raided at the same time as two other houses.

These were the youth's parents' home, where he lives, and a second property owned by his parents.

The 21-year-old man is of Pakistani origin.

West Yorkshire Police were staying tight-lipped over reports that the man was being questioned in connection with a terror plot in Canada.

But the BBC quoted security sources as saying the incident was linked to the Canadian inquiry.

A number of men were arrested in Canada last week and charged in connection with an `al Qaida inspired' plot in the Toronto area.

Canadian prosecutors have accused some of those suspected of plotting to storm Parliament, take hostages and behead the Prime Minister unless Canada withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, said a lawyer for one of the suspects.

Dewsbury, of course, was the home of July 7 suicide bomb squad leader Mohammed Sidique Khan.

In the town last night, dozens of local people were out in the street, watching in the sunshine as police guarded three cordoned off houses in Warren Street and another in South Street.

Officers later widened the cordon, blocking off 100yd sections of each road.

People watching said the houses were owned by a local Muslim cleric.

One man said: "He's like a father figure around here, very well respected.

"But he's always been very vocal against terrorism."

Another said: "I don't know if the police have been planning it or what.

"There's been quite an unusual amount of police around here recently, but you just don't know, do you?"

Dewsbury MP Shahid Malik, who knows the family of the arrested youth, said his constituency needed more bad headlines `like a hole in the head'.

But he urged constituents to remain calm.

He said: "The police have got to follow their rules and procedures. But obviously an arrest has been made and either they will charge them or release them, but people need to stay cool and calm.

"I know the family in Dewsbury and it's a very well-respected family. I hope that when the police have concluded their inquiries they find there's nothing further with respect to the particular individual."

Mr Malik said he was worried his constituency was becoming synonymous with terrorism.

But he added that he was grateful there was no suggestion of a link with the July 7 attacks in London or the recent shooting of a man during a police raid in Forest Green, London.

Mr Malik said: "The main message for the community is they have to stay calm and allow the police to do their work."