Post by Mellow Yellow on Jun 29, 2007 12:13:45 GMT -5
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/29/AR2007062900160.html?hpid=topnews
British Police Defuse Car Bomb in London
By Mary Jordan and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 29, 2007; 11:08 AM
LONDON, June 29 --A Mercedes sedan packed with gasoline, nails and a detonator was discovered in London's bustling nightclub and theater district early Friday morning. British police said if the vehicle had exploded it would have caused "significant injury or loss of life."
Police were alerted to the situation by an ambulance crew that noticed smoke coming from the Mercedes, which was parked near Haymarket Street and Piccadilly Circus. Anti-terrorist officials said they were reviewing footage from the many closed-circuit cameras in the central London area and had launched a massive manhunt for the car's driver.
A British police officer stands at the cordoned off junction of Coventry Street and Haymarket in central London as police officers investigate a "potentially viable explosive device" Friday June 29, 2007. Explosives officers on Friday dealt with a suspected bomb in a vehicle parked near Piccadilly Circus in central London, making it "safe," police said. (AP Photo/Clara Molden/PA Wire) (Clara Molden - AP)
Play Video
VIDEO | Explosive experts "made safe" a suspected bomb in a vehicle parked near Picadilly Circus in central London on Friday, days before the second anniversary of the London Bombings.
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Peter Clarke, the head of London's anti-terrorist police, said it was unclear what the target was. But nearby was a crowded nightclub, "Tiger Tiger," which can hold more than 1,000 people. In this busy, landmark part of central London there are also many theaters and restaurants popular with both tourists and Brits.
"It is obvious that if the device had detonated, there could have been significant injury or loss of life," Clarke said, adding that the number of dead and injured "certainly could have been into the hundreds."
Friday afternoon, police closed another major road in central London because of a suspicious vehicle. Because of the intense media coverage of the earlier incident, images of the affected stretch of Park Lane, on the eastern edge of Hyde Park near the Marble Arch, were broadcast worldwide on CNN and other networks. But there was no immediate information about the allegedly suspicious vehicle, and no obvious link to what had happened with the Mercedes hours earlier.
Police said they found gas cylinders inside the Mercedes, along with large numbers of nails that could have enhanced the damage the bomb could inflict.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith urged the public to report "anything suspicious" to the police. Only appointed to the job a day earlier, Smith chaired her first meeting of Britain's "Cobra" group, which convenes in national and terrorist-related emergencies, Friday morning. She echoed Clarke's assertion that the explosive device could have caused "a considerable loss of life."
"We're currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorists," Smith said. "While we can minimize the risks, we can never eliminate them."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took over from Tony Blair Wednesday, said the incident underscores the need for constant vigilance by both the public and the police. "We face a serious and considerable security threat throughout the country."
The bomb scare comes at a busy time for London, when many tourists are in town on summer vacations visiting Buckingham Palace and Big Ben -- both near where the bomb was discovered -- and attending the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
Next week marks the second anniversary of the July 7 London bombings, when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 bus and subway passengers. For more than a year, the government has held the country's terrorist threat level at severe -- which means a terrorist attack is highly likely.
The ambulance crew that discovered the rigged car was summoned to the Haymarket area for an apparently unrelated report of a person who had fallen ill, police said. After they called police at about 1:30 a.m., a bomb squad was summoned.
British news reports said some witnesses reported that the driver of the Mercedes had erratically driven the car before slamming it into garbage bins and fleeing. But police did not confirm those accounts.
Police covered the car with a tarpaulin while detectives examined it. About 11 a.m., more than nine hours after it was discovered, it was loaded into a truck and hauled away so police could continue searching it for fingerprints and other evidence.
Just after midday, the subway lines into Piccadilly and Haymarket were reopened, but there continued to be massive disruption in the city center. Bus lines were rerouted. Several streets remained blocked off, and scores of businesses were shut.
With a helicopter circling overhead and heavy police presence in the streets, Nadeem Saumtally, a 21-year-old university student, said Piccadilly Circus was a "a vibrant entertainment area. It never sleeps, even at 2 a.m. It's buzzing right now, but for all the wrong reasons."
Emmanuel Eshepu, a 39-year-old Londoner, said he was grateful the bomb did not go off. "It's worrisome -- imagine, in the middle of the city," he said. Sadly, he added, "We're getting used to hearing this kind of news."
British Police Defuse Car Bomb in London
By Mary Jordan and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 29, 2007; 11:08 AM
LONDON, June 29 --A Mercedes sedan packed with gasoline, nails and a detonator was discovered in London's bustling nightclub and theater district early Friday morning. British police said if the vehicle had exploded it would have caused "significant injury or loss of life."
Police were alerted to the situation by an ambulance crew that noticed smoke coming from the Mercedes, which was parked near Haymarket Street and Piccadilly Circus. Anti-terrorist officials said they were reviewing footage from the many closed-circuit cameras in the central London area and had launched a massive manhunt for the car's driver.
A British police officer stands at the cordoned off junction of Coventry Street and Haymarket in central London as police officers investigate a "potentially viable explosive device" Friday June 29, 2007. Explosives officers on Friday dealt with a suspected bomb in a vehicle parked near Piccadilly Circus in central London, making it "safe," police said. (AP Photo/Clara Molden/PA Wire) (Clara Molden - AP)
Play Video
VIDEO | Explosive experts "made safe" a suspected bomb in a vehicle parked near Picadilly Circus in central London on Friday, days before the second anniversary of the London Bombings.
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Read what bloggers are saying about this article.
* Libel Settles Nothing
* Libel Settles Nothing
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Peter Clarke, the head of London's anti-terrorist police, said it was unclear what the target was. But nearby was a crowded nightclub, "Tiger Tiger," which can hold more than 1,000 people. In this busy, landmark part of central London there are also many theaters and restaurants popular with both tourists and Brits.
"It is obvious that if the device had detonated, there could have been significant injury or loss of life," Clarke said, adding that the number of dead and injured "certainly could have been into the hundreds."
Friday afternoon, police closed another major road in central London because of a suspicious vehicle. Because of the intense media coverage of the earlier incident, images of the affected stretch of Park Lane, on the eastern edge of Hyde Park near the Marble Arch, were broadcast worldwide on CNN and other networks. But there was no immediate information about the allegedly suspicious vehicle, and no obvious link to what had happened with the Mercedes hours earlier.
Police said they found gas cylinders inside the Mercedes, along with large numbers of nails that could have enhanced the damage the bomb could inflict.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith urged the public to report "anything suspicious" to the police. Only appointed to the job a day earlier, Smith chaired her first meeting of Britain's "Cobra" group, which convenes in national and terrorist-related emergencies, Friday morning. She echoed Clarke's assertion that the explosive device could have caused "a considerable loss of life."
"We're currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorists," Smith said. "While we can minimize the risks, we can never eliminate them."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took over from Tony Blair Wednesday, said the incident underscores the need for constant vigilance by both the public and the police. "We face a serious and considerable security threat throughout the country."
The bomb scare comes at a busy time for London, when many tourists are in town on summer vacations visiting Buckingham Palace and Big Ben -- both near where the bomb was discovered -- and attending the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
Next week marks the second anniversary of the July 7 London bombings, when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 bus and subway passengers. For more than a year, the government has held the country's terrorist threat level at severe -- which means a terrorist attack is highly likely.
The ambulance crew that discovered the rigged car was summoned to the Haymarket area for an apparently unrelated report of a person who had fallen ill, police said. After they called police at about 1:30 a.m., a bomb squad was summoned.
British news reports said some witnesses reported that the driver of the Mercedes had erratically driven the car before slamming it into garbage bins and fleeing. But police did not confirm those accounts.
Police covered the car with a tarpaulin while detectives examined it. About 11 a.m., more than nine hours after it was discovered, it was loaded into a truck and hauled away so police could continue searching it for fingerprints and other evidence.
Just after midday, the subway lines into Piccadilly and Haymarket were reopened, but there continued to be massive disruption in the city center. Bus lines were rerouted. Several streets remained blocked off, and scores of businesses were shut.
With a helicopter circling overhead and heavy police presence in the streets, Nadeem Saumtally, a 21-year-old university student, said Piccadilly Circus was a "a vibrant entertainment area. It never sleeps, even at 2 a.m. It's buzzing right now, but for all the wrong reasons."
Emmanuel Eshepu, a 39-year-old Londoner, said he was grateful the bomb did not go off. "It's worrisome -- imagine, in the middle of the city," he said. Sadly, he added, "We're getting used to hearing this kind of news."
