The terror threat level to the UK has been downgraded to "severe" from "critical", BBC reported, citing a statement of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

This comes after eight people were arrested over the London and Glasgow bomb attack and means that an attack is no longer expected imminently.

The UK was placed on its highest level of terrorism alert after an attack on Glasgow Airport was linked to two car bombs found in London at the end of last week.

The decision to raise the threat level to "critical" meant that an attack was imminent.

The critical threat level was also in place after the 7 July 2005 suicide bomb attacks on London.