Birmingham, United Kingdom: In the well-heeled district of Edgbaston, residents are struggling to understand how their cricket-loving corner of Britain's second city Birmingham could be linked to the terror attack in London.
Overnight, armed police stormed an apartment on Hagley Road, wedged between restaurants selling pizza and Persian food, one of six locations raided just hours after a car and knife rampage outside parliament that killed three.
Eight people were arrested in the raids across Birmingham and London.
"I was shocked. That's my neighbours," said Muhammed Ali, a 20-year-old retail worker.
"It's scary."
Edgbaston, home to one of Britain's top cricket grounds and some of the central English city's most sought-after addresses, is unused to the sight of armed policemen blocking off their streets.
"It's a very calm area. There are loads of university students here so it's very surprising this happened right here," said Lucas Camoes, a 23-year-old warehouse worker.
"I don't feel safe at all. A bit paranoid."
Car rented in Birmingham
The post-industrial city has been associated with Islamist plots in the past, but few in Edgbaston would have linked their neighbourhood to the Islamic State group which claimed the London assault was carried out by one of its "soldiers".
A police cordon surrounded the flat on Hagley Road, with two local police officers standing guard outside the brown front door while detectives from London went inside.
The blinds were down on one window, and cardboard covered the other.
The flat's owner turned up to collect the mail from the Shiraz restaurant next door, but he said he knew little about his tenants.
"I do own the flat but it is run by an agent. I have nothing to do with the tenants," the man told AFP, without giving his name.
The extent of Birmingham's links to the attack has yet to become clear, but a car hire firm in Solihull on the city outskirts has confirmed that the Hyundai vehicle used in the attack was rented there.
'The work of evil'
Britain's top counter-terror officer Mark Rowley has acknowledged that Muslim communities "will feel anxious at this time" over worries of an Islamophobic backlash, and said police would work with community leaders to ensure protection.
Birmingham is home to large South Asian and Muslim communities, last year hosting Europe's largest celebrations for the Eid festival.
Muhammad Afzal, chairman of the Birmingham Central Mosque, said the attacker's motivations had nothing to do with true Islam.
"Whoever the attacker is and whatever the cause may be, nothing justifies taking lives of innocent people which is completely against the good of humanity," he said in a statement.
"We call upon those that may have even a shred of sympathy for the like-minded terrorists to shake their conscience and realise that such acts are the work of evil and not the work of God-fearing people."
Birmingham hit the headlines last year when a court jailed two men for handing money to Mohamed Abrini, a suspect in both the Paris and Brussels attacks.
Mohammed Ali Ahmed and Belgian citizen Zakaria Boufassil, both living in Birmingham, gave £3,000 ($3,770/3,550 euros) in cash to Abrini in July 2015, knowing it would be used for terrorism.
In 2008, a man from Birmingham was also convicted for intending to kidnap and kill a British Muslim soldier.