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The Met launched an investigation following the explosion on December 6 (Picture: Nick Edwards)

Two men have been arrested by counter-terrorism police who are investigating the explosion of a ULEZ camera with an improvised bomb.

The device, located in Willersley Avenue, Sidcup, south-east London, was blown up at around 6.45pm on December 6 – just hours after it was installed.

It was one of the most dramatic examples of backlash against the expansion of the controversial scheme, which aims to reduce air pollution in the capital.

The Metropolitan Police said the damage had been done by a ‘low-sophistication improvised explosive device (IED)’.

Nobody was hurt by the explosions, but vehicles and a nearby house were damaged.

A 60-year-old man from the area close to where the camera was blown up was arrested just after 6am today on suspicion of conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or property.

At 6.15am, a 61-year-old man was also arrested in Horsham, West Sussex, on the same grounds as well as on suspicion of criminal damage.

Scotland Yard said both remained in custody at a police station in south London while searches take place at two addresses in Sidcup and Horsham.

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Police said the camera had been damaged by an improvised explosive device (Picture: Nick Edwards)

Detective Chief Superintendent Trevor Lawry, Commander for the Bexley area, said: ‘The explosion could easily have had far more harmful consequences, and today’s arrests highlight just how seriously the Met is treating the incident.

‘My local officers are continuing to work with and support the Counter Terrorism Command who are leading the investigation due to their specialism in dealing with incidents involving the use of explosives.’

After the incident, a spokesman for Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: ‘This grotesquely irresponsible behaviour puts both lives and property at risk.’

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The Man City player was in Saudi Arabi when the break-in happened, local media said (Picture: PA)

The 70-acre mansion of Kevin De Bruyne, a Belgium Manchester City star, was been reportedly ransacked by burglars on Saturday.

De Bruyne, 32, his wife Michele Lacroix and their three children were not at the property in Bolderberg during the break-in.

Police believe the burglary took place between 4pm and 9pm and saw them use a stepladder to get inside.

Lacroix walked in to discover the mansion had been trashed, the Dutch newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws (HLN) reported.

Various items were swiped from the secluded luxury estate, the paper said citing the public prosecution office, but what was taken remains unclear.

Forensic experts are combing the scene as police hope to chat with neighbours and look over CCTV.

‘The investigation into what exactly happened is still ongoing,’ the prosecutor’s office said, adding: ‘It is therefore not yet clear who the perpetrators are.’

De Bruyne is currently in Saudi Arabia for the Club World Cup, playing as a midfielder for the Premier League club Man City.

But he had to sit out for his team’s match on Saturday due to a hamstring injury, watching on from the stands at the Etihad Stadium. 

City is set to play Japan’s Urawa Reds in the semi-final tomorrow – it remains unclear whether De Bruyne will be on the pitch with them.

He said over the weekend: ‘It’s going really well. I had surgery – it was a big injury. But we’re getting closer – closer to the new year.’

De Bruyne and Lacroix, an internet personality, bought the mansion in 2015.

Taking four years to build, the home has a pool, hot tub and basketball court.

HLN said the family uses the villa more as a holiday home as they instead spend most of their time at their other mansion in Wilmslow, a village about 10 miles from Manchester.

Made of white stone, the massive property sits on Zandstraat, a street which runs into the De Wijers nature reserve about 3.5 miles east of Lummen.

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Jon Venebles (R) has lost his bid for freedom after being jailed for possession on child abuse images (Picture: PA)

James Bulger’s evil killer Jon Venables will stay in prison after his bid for parole was rejected.

Venebles faced an appeal to determine if he could be released from jail after he was imprisoned for possessing images of child abuse.

But the Parole Board rejected his bid, with the panel ruling that it was ‘not satisfied that release at this point would be safe for the protection of the public’.

Now 41, Venebles and pal Robert Thompson shocked the nation in 1993 when they adbucted, tortured and murdered two-year-old James when they were just ten years old.

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