Four men who allegedly swore an allegiance to extremist group Islamic State have been charged with plotting a terror attack in London, Scotland Yard said.
Tarik Hassane, 21, Suhaib Majeed, 20, Nyall Hamlett, 24, and Momen Motasim, 21, have all been charged intending to commit acts of terrorism.
A fifth man, Nathan Cuffy, 25, has been charged with firearms offences.
Details of the charges, provided by the Metropolitan Police, allege that the four men conducted "hostile reconnaissance" of Shepherd's Bush police station and White City Territorial Army Barracks and took an oath of allegiance to IS (also known as ISIL or ISIS).
All five men, who live in addresses in London, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court today.
Mr Hassane and Mr Majeed laughed as details of the alleged plot were read to the court.
The offences allegedly took place between 8 July and 7 October.
Further details of the charges allege the four terror suspects set up methods of secret communications and entered into covert discussions.
It is alleged the men sourced a firearm, moped and an extract of the "fatwa of Al Adnani" as part of the plot.
The four men allegedly viewed and retained an image sent via Instagram of two Metropolitan Police officers and two Metropolitan Police community support officers.
It is also alleged they possessed jihadist material, including articles with graphic images of the beheading of Steven Sotloff.
They were remanded in custody to appear in court on October 27.
The men were flanked in the dock by ten plain-clothes police officers, some of whom were wearing white stab-proof vests, and four uniformed dock officers.
They arrived at court under heavy police protection including a helicopter, two vans and several marked cars.
News of the charges came as Britain's counter-terrorism chief warned officers are grappling with "exceptionally high" numbers of investigations.
Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said hundreds of suspected terrorists have been arrested so far this year, and that police are taking down more than 1,000 pieces of extremist material from the internet per week.
Mr Rowley said: "So far this year we have made 218 arrests and are running exceptionally high numbers of counter-terrorism investigations, the likes of which we have not seen for several years.
"Against an increasing operational tempo we are disrupting several attack plots a year."
