Print      
55 detained in UK Sikh temple protest
Associated Press

LONDON — Police arrested 55 people and seized bladed weapons after dozens of men occupied a Sikh temple in central England on Sunday. A Sikh youth group said it was protesting the temple’s use for interfaith weddings.

The Warwickshire Police said officers were called early Sunday morning to the Gurdwara Sahib Leamington and Warwick temple in Leamington Spa, a town 100 miles northwest of London.

Police said the 55 demonstrators were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass. They said no one was injured.

The force said ‘‘a significant number’’ of bladed weapons had been seized, though it didn’t say of what kind. Some Sikh men wear a ceremonial dagger known as a kirpan.

Police said the incident wasn’t related to terrorism, but was ‘‘an escalation of an ongoing local dispute.’’

A group called Sikh Youth Birmingham said on its Facebook page that a peaceful protest was taking place against an interfaith wedding due to be held at the temple.

In France, police said they arrested a 15-year-old boy at his Paris home to thwart what they feared was a planned weekend attack.

The French prime minister warned on Sunday that some 15,000 people in the country could be in the process of being radicalized.

The arrest of the teenager on Saturday came two days after police moved in on what the Paris prosecutor says was a group of female ‘‘commandos’’ arrested after an aborted attack at Notre Dame Cathedral and another possible attack.