Phones raid suspects face further questioning

Detectives are continuing to question five men arrested in connection with one of Britain's biggest mobile phone robberies.

The arrests came after police raided an address in west London and recovered "several thousand" mobiles from the premises and from a van parked nearby.

Approximately 23,000 Samsung phones were stolen from a freight forwarding warehouse in nearby Hayes, west London, on Sunday.

The police raid came after thieves escaped with the top-of-the-range silver coloured Samsung A300 mobile flip-phones worth £4.2m.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said all five men were being questioned at a west London police station.

Forensic officers are examining the phones, although it appears that many more of them are missing.

It is thought the phones, which were individually packed in heavy duty boxes, could have been stolen to order for a buyer in the Far East, Eastern Europe or India.

It is believed a 40ft articulated lorry would have been needed to transport the phones, which had been imported last week and were stacked in more than 60 pallets. The lorry has not yet been recovered, police said.

Samsung has offered a reward of up to £200,000 for information on the raid, believed to be one of the biggest of its type in Britain.

The phones are marked with logos for the Orange or One2One networks.