LONDON (Reuters) - British police are investigating whether a man and a woman arrested at London’s Heathrow airport are part of a militant group which abducted and wounded two photojournalists in Syria, Scotland Yard said on Wednesday.

The British pair, both 26 years old, were arrested on Tuesday evening after arriving on a flight to Heathrow and taken to a police station in central London where they remain in custody.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said one line of inquiry was whether the two were involved in the abduction of British photographer John Cantlie, who had worked for The Sunday Times, and Dutch photographer Jeroen Oerlemans.

The photographers were shot, kidnapped and held captive for a week by Islamic militants in July before being freed by Syrian opposition fighters.

An earlier police statement said the pair were arrested “on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism”.

Police searched several residential addresses in east London in connection with the inquiry, which was continuing, the statement said.

Foreign Secretary William Hague, asked on BBC radio whether the arrests were evidence that there were people in Britain who wanted to join the fighting in Syria, said: “There is some evidence that yes, there are people who want to do that.

“We would strongly advise them not to do so, and while I can’t comment at the moment in further detail on these cases, on the general subject, we are clearly very vigilant about this, about people either passing through the UK or British nationals who want to commit acts of violence anywhere.”

Hague said the government was advising British nationals in Syria to leave the country, and all others not to travel there.

“We don’t supply ourselves anything that could contribute to lethal action inside Syria and of course we don’t want individuals to do that either,” he said.