LONDON, England (AP) - A group of Scotland Yard officers were suspended after "serious allegations" about their behaviour during the arrests of five suspects last year, police said yesterday.

London's police force did not go into detail, but Sky News television, The Daily Mail and The Times of London newspapers reported that six officers were accused of "waterboarding" drug suspects.

The papers gave varying accounts of the exact technique used by police, with the Times saying that officers poured water on a cloth and placed it over a suspect's face to simulate the experience of drowning.
The Daily Mail said police officers repeatedly dunked the suspects' heads in buckets of water. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.

In an e-mail statement, Scotland Yard said that it was "not appropriate to make assumptions" about what the officers did. While a spokesman for the force refused to comment on the nature of the allegations, the statement acknowledged that they were grave and "do raise real concern."

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