They are family types, with young children and pregnant wives. They live in typical suburbs and ordinary towns. To relax, they watch cricket and football, meet their friends and pray at the local mosque. On the surface, their lives are unexceptional.

But in the early hours of Thursday morning, 23 young men and one woman were arrested in a series of raids in connection with an alleged plot to bring down five airliners packed with passengers.

On Friday, police found bomb-making equipment, intelligence sources claimed. And it emerged the raids were prompted by the arrest of a Briton in Pakistan on Wednesday.

But what of the British-born suspects who face up to 28 days of questioning?

One is Waheed Zaman. He liked to kick a football though, like many young men, his enthusiasm ran ahead of his ability. Turning out with his mates at Lloyd's Park in the east London suburb of Walthamstow, the Liverpool fan failed to make the grade for the local side Asianos FC. His friend Oliver Savant was a different proposition on the pitch and a sought-after player among the Asian teams that battled it out each Sunday afternoon as their less-motivated friends sat through the EastEnders omnibus at home.

Despite the three years between them, the two men had been close since school, both attending Kelmscott secondary . . . a typical London comprehensive where a third of the pupils are of Pakistani descent.

When Savant converted to Islam and changed his name to Ibrahim eight years ago, the two worshipped at Queens Road Mosque, where, before it underwent a 3m rebuilding programme, Friday prayers used to spill out onto the street.

Islamic classes at the Madrassas were always over-subscribed by the children in the area.

With his beard and flowing white robes, Savant cut a distinctive figure, driving his R-registration silver Honda car each day to the music company he ran with his brother in Limehouse. Early on Thursday morning, the newly married 25year-old was arrested at his home in Folkestone Road as police led away his pregnant wife Atika from the couple's maisonette a few miles down the road in Stoke Newington.

Back in Walthamstow, Zaman was watching late-night television at his Queens Road home along with his sister when the police came around. Their 90-year-old father was asleep upstairs.

The 22-year-old, who studied bio-medical sciences at London Metropolitan University, where he was president of the Islamic Society, was handcuffed and led to a waiting van.

Some 30 officers, some of them armed, had come to arrest him. His family, like that of his lifelong friend, were furious and protested the innocence of the "popular, serious-minded" student, describing him as a "typical British lad", who liked nothing better than watching his favourite team play football on TV and wolfing down a meal of burger and chips.

Yesterday the community rallied around the men, describing them as ordinary and peaceful.

The father of three of the arrested men in east London . . . Nabeel, Tanvir and Umair Hussain . . .

broke down as he said his sons' only crime was "going to prayer".

Another youngster recalled fondly how Zaman had encouraged him to be a doctor, lending him books on anatomy. He also gave him copies of his favourite novels, typically science-fiction fantasy by Terry Pratchett and the humorous Artemis Fowl series by the Irish author Eoin Colfer.

Also arrested in Walthamstow that morning was Muhammed Usman Saddique. The 24-yearold attended primary school with Savant and lived in a typical 1930s suburban semi-detached house on nearby Albert Road with his family. Also a regular at the Queens Road mosque, he worked at the local pizza takeaway.

Amin Asmin Tariq's two-storey terraced home in Ravenswood Road was also raided. The 24year-old was said to have shown little outward interest in his religion. Also recently married with a three-week-old baby, he came from a typical east London family . . . closely knit with a hardworking father who ran his own dry-cleaning business until retirement. Tariq was employed as a security guard at Heathrow airport.

Across London and 30 miles up the M40 motorway, the police arrested six men in the Buckinghamshire town of High Wycombe. Four of those worked in the motor trade, importing cars from an office set up inside a suburban home.

It was a family affair. The business was run by 26-year-old Shazad Ali. He employed his younger brother and another man, Amjad Sarwar, a cricket-loving 28-year-old. Sarwar's brother Assad was also arrested and the two men, both married with young families, shared a house on Walton Drive in a declining 1960s estate. The only remarkable thing was the succession of used sports cars and SUVs parked on the driveway outside, neighbours said.

Before his marriage, Amjad had posted his details on an internet dating site, in search of a girl with "a nice personality". He listed his hobbies as rap music and reading and said his favourite meal was fish.

The Ali brothers lived in Micklefield Road, where neighbours said a small prayer-room had been built in their back garden. They were near-neighbours of Don Stewart-Whyte, who had converted to Islam six months ago after turning his back on drink and drugs problems.

Like many of the arrested men, he too was recently married. The 21-year-old was stopped in his red Nissan Micra by police early on Thursday morning.