Two men and a woman have been arrested on suspicion of assisting the Russian intelligence service.

The Metropolitan Police said they were detained in Essex as part of a counter-terror investigation.

A 41-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman were arrested at an address in Grays.

A 46-year-old man was arrested at a separate address in the Grays area.

The Met said the suspects were taken to a London police station and held under the National Security Act.

Officers searched the two Essex addresses and all three have now been released on conditional bail while the investigation continues.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's counter-terrorism team, said police were seeing "an increasing number of who we would describe as 'proxies' being recruited by foreign intelligence services".

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Commander Murphy cited the case of two Britons waiting to be sentenced after being recruited by Russia's Wagner Group to carry out arson at a Ukrainian-linked warehouse in east London last year.

"They are facing potentially lengthy custodial sentences," he said. "Although, to be clear, today's arrests are in no way connected to that investigation."

He added: "Anyone who might be contacted by and tempted into carrying out criminal activity on behalf of a foreign state here in the UK should think again."