Anti-terror police were last night questioning an arts graduate arrested at a Birmingham University hall of residence in connection with the July 7 London Tube bombings.

Imran Motala, aged 22, was taken by police from his girlfriend's flat in Selly Oak at 7.30am, and his family home in Lozells was raided.

Motala was one of four arrested in raids in Birmingham and West Yorkshire yesterday in connection with the 2005 attacks, which killed 52.

The others are Hasina Patel, the 29-year-old widow of Tube suicide bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, her brother Arshad Patel, 30, and Khalid Khaliq, 34, arrested in the swoops in West Yorkshire.

The arrests were made under the Terrorism Act and the four were being questioned at Paddington Green police station last night on suspicion of commissioning, preparing or instigating acts of terrorism.

Motala was arrested at his student girlfriend's flat at the Victoria Hall block of flats on Grange Road, close to the Selly Oak campus.

His family home in Leonard Road was also raided. Six plain-clothes officers entered the terraced property and his mother and father and brother were taken away by police, said neighbours. A silver Astra was also towed away.

Yesterday police were still entering the house with forensic teams and officers on guard outside the university accommodation.

Motala was not a student at Birmingham University. He was said to be an arts graduate from UCE and friends and acquaintances described him as a regular visitor to his girlfriend's flat. She is thought to be a third year medical student.

Neighbours and friends described him as a hard-working man who enjoyed football and his family. Yesterday a friend of Motala said he thought the arrest a mistake.

Sussean Miah, 22, a fitness trainer, said: "Imran likes football, cricket and dancing. He is a sales rep for a cosmetic company but he was trying to get a job at LDV Vans.

"I know he has relatives in Leeds but I'm sure it's a coincidence because he would tell me everything and I know he wouldn't get mixed up in anything like this.

"After going to Holt secondary school he studied art at the University of Central England."

The arrests followed an intelligence-led operation involving Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command and units in West Yorkshire and the West Midlands. Armed officers were not used in the operation.

Police said the inquiry remained a "painstaking investigation" into whether anyone knew what the bombers had been planning and who may have helped them.

Both West Midlands and West Yorkshire forces said they were keeping the affected local communities informed.

As well as Birmingham, properties in Dewsbury, Batley and Beeston in south Leeds were cordoned off for forensic investigation.

London was thrown into chaos two years ago when four suicide bombers exploded devices in three packed rush-hour London Underground Tube trains and a crowded bus.

The perpetrators - ringleader Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain - all died.

Last month, three men - Mohammed Shakil, 30, Sadeer Saleem, 26, and Waheed Ali, 23, from Beeston, Leeds - became the first people to appear in court charged with conspiring with the four.

Scotland Yard has always insisted the "painstaking" investigation into the bombings is far from over, with leads being followed up in the UK and abroad.