UNITED KINGDOM: London car bomb could have killed many people, anti-terror police say

Record ID: 359112

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: London car bomb could have killed many people, anti-terror police say
  • Date: 29th June 2007
  • Summary: (BN09) LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JUNE 29, 2007) (REUTERS) PICCADILLY CIRCUS STREET BLOCKED OFF BY POLICE, CAR IN WHICH BOMB WAS FOUND COVERED BY BLUE TENT AT END OF BLOCKED OFF STREET CLOSER VIEW OF BLUE TENT COVERING CAR IN WHICH BOMB WAS FOUND STREET SIGN READING 'HAYMARKET SW1' CAMERAMEN FILMING PEOPLE MILLING AROUND
  • Embargoed: 14th July 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Communications
  • Reuters ID: LVA7HABBO9RE6SSFYWKF7RDANAJA
  • Story Text: Explosives experts defused a car bomb in central London on Friday (June 29) and counter-terrorism police said the petrol, gas and nail-packed device could have caused significant loss of life.
    The bomb was in a light green Mercedes car parked outside a nightclub in the busy heart of London shortly after 1 a.m. (midnight GMT), when hundreds of people were in the vicinity, Peter Clarke, the head of London's anti-terrorist police, told a news conference.
    Witnesses said the occupant drove "erratically" before smashing into bins outside the nightclub and running off. Bouncers from the nightclub investigated, saw what looked like gas canisters inside the vehicle and called the police.
    A large area of central London around the scene, in the normally busy and popular theatre district, remained sealed off hours after the bomb was found. Officers said it could be several more hours before the area was cleared.
    Television pictures clearly showed one gas canister after it was removed from the car. It was green and labelled "PATIO GAS", which is readily available at hardware stores nationwide.
    At Friday's news conference, Clarke said officers discovered "significant quantities" of petrol, a number of gas cylinders and a large number of nails.
    "It is obvious that if the device had detonated there could have been significant injury or loss of life," he said.
    He said he could not ignore the similarities between the incident and an earlier plot, uncovered in 2004, in which an al Qaeda militant had planned to detonate gas-fuelled bombs inside vehicles in London, among other targets.
    Britain's terrorism threat level has been set at severe since last August, meaning "an attack is highly likely". Four young British Muslim men blew themselves up, killing 52 people, in an attack on London's transport network on July 7, 2005.
    The discovery of the bomb came hours after new Prime Minister Gordon Brown named a cabinet to succeed Tony Blair's.
    Brown, who was visiting a children's centre in Stonebridge, north-west London, underlined the importance of the British public remaining vigilant at all times.
    "The first duty of a government is the security of the people, and as the police and security services have said on so many occasions we face a serious and continued security threat to our country," Brown said.
    "We should allow the police to investigate this incident and then report to us, but this incident does recall the need for us to be vigilant at all times and the public to be alert at any potential incidents. I will stress to the cabinet that vigilance must be mentioned over these next few days," said Brown.
    It also posed a first major challenge for Brown's three-day-old administration, and particularly his new home secretary, Jacqui Smith.
    Smith chaired a meeting of the country's top security committee, Cobra, on Friday and said afterwards: "We are currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorism."
    Passers-by in Piccadilly Circus, which is near Haymarket, said they thought it was important not to be deterred by the incident and to carry on with everyday life.
    "Well, I think we just have to ignore it and continue with our lives. We're far more likely to be run over by a car more than anything else," said Una Gaye.
    "Yes, it does affect me 'cause I've been working in London for a while now, but, you got two choices, you let it beat you or deal with it and at the moment we just got to deal with it," said Nishan Jugurnauth.
    "You, have it at the back of your head and I suppose at times like this, you know, it's highlighted, you know, you do tend to think about it a bit more but once it's passed, you get on with life, there's not much you can do," said Lucy Kazungu.
    Intelligence sources said they could not rule out an al Qaeda link, noting that the threat from international Islamist terrorism was the main reason the official British threat level is placed at "severe", the second highest level.
    The MI5 intelligence agency said last year it believed Islamist radicals were plotting at least 30 major terrorist attacks in Britain and it was tracking some 1,600 suspects.
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