Another Explosion in London

[BigBadBrian]

Just heard on the news there may have been another explosion in a train station in London. Details are still sketchy at this time. Still developing...

[BigBadBrian]

The BBC is reporting three train stations have been evacuated. Smoke is coming out of one.

[jero]

Warren Street, Oval and Shepherd's Bush stations!!

[diamondD]

A witness says a rucksack exploded on the subway. So far no injuries reported.

[diamondD]

Now they are reporting a nail bomb possibly on a bus. Wild times in London.

[BigBadBrian]

July 21, 2005

Incidents reported at three Tube stations and on bus
By Philippe Naughton, Times Online



Emergency services were called out to incidents at three different Tube stations in London today, including a reported nailbomb attack at Warren Street Tube.



A British Transport Police spokeswoman said Warren Street, Shepherds Bush and Oval stations had all been evacuated, and nearby buildings emptied. She said the incidents were "ongoing".

An explosion was also reported on a bus at Hackney in East London.

Police sources said that there were no reports of any casualties at this stage.

Passengers at Warren Street, on the Victoria line, reported seeing smoke. One passenger who had been passing through Warren Street told Sky News that another passenger's rucksack had exploded on the train - although he said that no-one was injured, including the passenger in question.

Services on the Victoria, Northern and Hammersmith and City lines were suspended following the incidents. London fire brigade said that there were reports of smoke coming from Oval station, which crews were investigating.

"I can confirm that emergency services are responding to reports of three incidents on the London Underground," a Scotland Yard spokeswoman said. "They are Oval, Warren Street and Shepherd's Bush."

Sosiane Mohellavi, 35, was travelling from Oxford Circus to Walthamstow when she was evacuated from a train at Warren Street - which is just a few hundred yards from King's Cross.

"I was in the carriage and we smelt smoke - it was like something was burning. Everyone was panicked and people were screaming. We had to pull the alarm. I am still shaking," Ms Mohellavi said. "We pulled into Warren Street and were evacuated. It was horrible," she said.

The incidents come exactly two weeks after four suicide bombers blew themselves up on three Tube trains and a London bus, killing more than 50 people.

Ivan McCracken, a passenger on a Victoria line train at Warren Street station, smelled smoke and described "extremely frightened" passengers running into his carriage after a small explosion occurred in a man's rucksack.

Mr McCracken spoke to a witness who was in the carriage where the explosion happened, and said: "There was this man, a man who was a young man, who was holding or wearing a rucksack, I don't know if he was standing or sitting. The rucksack was blown open by the force of the explosion, or whatever it was. The man looked extremely dismayed, alarmed and made some exclamation, I don't know what it was.

"The train was only 15 seconds from pulling into Warren Street when this happened, so we arrived normally and there was an orderly evacuation. The escalators were working," Mr McCracken told Sky News.


The Times

[jero]

Fucking assholes!!

[LoungeMachine]

Reports are a possible bomber suspect in hospital.

It was 1 pm there?

All of the previous attacks, Madrid and NY included, happen around 9am

strange. Lame amateur copycat perhaps?

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
Reports are a possible bomber suspect in hospital.

It was 1 pm there?

All of the previous attacks, Madrid and NY included, happen around 9am

strange. Lame amateur copycat perhaps?

Speculation is rampant that it may have been a prank, carried out in order to protest London's perceived lack of preparedness for another bombing.

[BigBadBrian]

London blasts cause chaos on Tube

Emergency services in protective clothing were deployed at the bus site
London's Tube network has been plunged into chaos with stations cleared after minor blasts on two trains and a bus.
Met Police chief Sir Ian Blair said three Tube lines were suspended but it was time London returned to normal.

The minor explosions - two weeks after blasts killed 56 - involved detonators only, a BBC reporter said. There was one injury.

Police sources say the blasts may have been near simultaneous and that they are being linked with the 7 July bombs.

They say a number of fugitives are being sought. Two people have been arrested in Whitehall.

Detectives are recovering a lot of evidence from the sites, and believe the latest events may either be a repetition of the 7 July attacks or may help with a breakthrough in the investigation.

Eyewitnesses heard bangs and saw abandoned rucksacks at the sites of the incidents at Warren Street and Oval tube stations as well as the number 26 bus in Bethnal Green.

There was an attempt to cause an explosion at Shepherd's Bush Hammersmith and City line, police said.

Police told reporters that a man had threatened to blow himself up and then ran off.

At Warren Street and Oval a man was seen running away from the scene.

On the bus, there were no injuries and the bus suffered no structural damage.

Large areas around all four sites were cordoned off. Tests for chemical, biological and radiological weapons proved negative.

One person was injured at Warren Street. There were reports the injured person may have been holding a rucksack containing the detonator.

In other developments:-


The whole of the Northern Line has been suspended, along with the Hammersmith and City line.

University College Hospital was cordoned off twice, with armed police entering the building. There were reports they were searching for a suspect from the Warren Street incident.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Sir Ian Blair, Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer, Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, Immigration Minister Des Browne and Transport Secretary Alistair Darling attended Downing Street for a meeting with the prime minister.

There were also alerts at Wood Lane in Shepherd's Bush, around St Paul's and, outside London, at St Albans station.

A number of other stations were closed during the alert, including Great Portland Street, Westminster, Waterloo, St Paul's and Oxford Circus tube stations, as well as Waterloo tube station and King's Cross Thameslink.

Sir Ian appealed for witnesses with mobile phone pictures of any of the incidents to visit the www.police.uk website.


Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "We can't minimise incidents such as this because they obviously have been serious in the four different places as we know.

"I think all I'd like to say is this that we know why these things are done, they're done to scare people and to frighten them, to make them anxious and worried."



Police have set up cordons round the stations


Sofiane Mohellebi, 35, was travelling from Oxford Circus to Walthamstow when she was evacuated from a train at Warren Street.

"I was in the carriage and we smelt smoke - it was like something was burning. "Everyone was panicked and people were screaming. We had to pull the alarm. I am still shaking."


BBC

[FORD]

This was likely a dummy operation designed to keep the fear level up.

Problem is that the Brits went through all this shit before with the IRA, so they aren't buying into the fear.

[Warham]

Originally posted by FORD
This was likely a dummy operation designed to keep the fear level up.

Problem is that the Brits went through all this shit before with the IRA, so they aren't buying into the fear.

Then it wouldn't make sense to do it in the first place, unless you are some fundamental extremist.

[VonHalen]

thats fucked up

[Soul Reaper]

Originally posted by BigBadBrian
Just heard on the news there may have been another explosion in a train station in London. Details are still sketchy at this time. Still developing...

i heard this afternoon.

this is awful!!

[Nickdfresh]

Update:

Jul 21, 6:30 PM EDT

Two Arrested in London Subway, Bus Blasts

By DANICA KIRKA
Associated Press Writer

A police officer gives directions to the public who found their way leading to Hackney Road blocked off , in east London, where a double decker bus was abandoned, Thursday, July 21, 2005. Explosions shut down three underground train stations and hit a double-decker bus just after midday Thursday, authorities said. They reported one casualty. The explosions that struck London underground trains and a bus Thursday appeared less sophisticated than the deadly attacks that hit the British capital two weeks ago, terrorism experts said. (AP Photo / Sang Tan)

LONDON (AP) -- Police in London have arrested two men in connection with four attacks on three subway trains and a double-decker bus on Thursday, a scene hauntingly similar to deadly explosions set off by four suicide bombers exactly two weeks before. It was an inescapable message that life in London now means living with the threat of terror.

The explosive devices were either faulty or too small to cause bloodshed, and the only reported injury turned out to be an asthma attack. But the lunch-hour blasts rattled a capital already on edge after the July 7 explosions, which killed 52 people and four suicide bombers.

Police said one man was detained near Downing Street, site of the prime minister's residence; the other was picked up near Tottenham Court Road, close to the Warren Street subway station where one attack took place.

"We can't minimize incidents such as this," Prime Minister Tony Blair said. "They're done to scare people, to frighten them and make them worried."

They did that.

Authorities said it was too early to determine whether the attacks were carried out by the same organization as the July 7 blasts - or whether they were linked to al-Qaida.

"Clearly, the intention must have been to kill," Police Commissioner Ian Blair told reporters. "You don't do this with any other intention. And I think the important point is that the intention of the terrorists has not been fulfilled."

Londoners fled the three Underground stations at midday, some sprinting barefoot after leaving their shoes behind in the scramble.

Witnesses on the Underground heard a pop like a bursting champagne cork. Others smelled an odor like burning rubber. At least one reported a minor explosion in a man's backpack, and then the man muttering that something had gone wrong.

Bus passengers reported a bang on the upper level, where windows were blown out. But some witnesses said the blast wasn't loud. Witnesses first saw the police running up the road, followed soon after by news cameramen lugging tripods.

The prime minister appealed for calm, and a Buckingham Palace garden party for 8,000 people, hosted by Queen Elizabeth II, went ahead.

But even among the famously stoic British, nerves were on edge.

"When I got home, my hands were shaking," said 24-year-old Lisa Chilley, who uses the targeted Oval station. "I'm panicking like hell. It's just too close to home."

Firefighters and police with bomb-sniffing dogs sealed off city blocks and evacuated rows of restaurants, pubs and offices.

Britain's Press Association news agency reported detectives were working on the belief that the bombs were not properly primed - which could help explain the limited damage.

Although authorities did not say how many devices exploded, Paul Beaver, an independent defense expert, said an official told him it appeared that two bombs detonated and two others did not. Detonators are often faulty on commercial and military explosives, he said.

"These attacks don't look like they were a hallmark of any one group," Beaver told The Associated Press. "They don't fit into any clear patterns that we know of except they were timed."

One of the greatest police fears is that an audacious attack will inspire similar attacks, said Rachel Bronson, director of Mideast Studies at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. "It's all done to sow terror, and there's nothing more terrifying than bombs followed by bombs," she said.

Alarmingly, it appears the group was able to attack in the midst of an intense investigation of the previous bus and train bombings. Often such follow-up attacks are uncovered and thwarted, Bronson said.

"What is very worrisome, London intelligence, which is among the best in the world, was not only surprised two weeks ago, but they're surprised by this," she said.

Emergency teams were sent to the three Underground stations after the attacks, and the police commissioner said forensic evidence collected could provide a "significant break."

In one closely watched development, an armed police unit entered University College hospital shortly after the blasts. Sky News TV reported that police were searching for a man with a blue shirt with wires protruding from his pocket. Officers asked employees to look for a black or South Asian man about 6-foot-2.

By late Thursday, the hospital said police had searched the facility but that three small rooms in an unoccupied part of the complex were cordoned off.

The attacks paralleled the July 7 blasts, which involved explosions at three Underground stations simultaneously starting at 8:50 a.m., followed about an hour later by a bomb going off on a bus. Those bombings took place in the center of London.

Thursday's attacks were more spread out and occurred during the lunch hour - beginning at about 12:38 p.m.

The bombs, which targeted trains near the Warren Street, Oval and Shepherd's Bush stations, did not shut down the subway system, only three of its lines. The bus was hit while on Hackney Road in east London.

At the Warren Street station, witness Ivan McCracken told Sky News that he spoke to an Italian who was comforting a woman after the evacuation.

"He said that a man was carrying a rucksack and the rucksack suddenly exploded. It was a minor explosion but enough to blow open the rucksack," McCracken said. "The man then made an exclamation as if something had gone wrong. At that point everyone rushed from the carriage."

Subway passengers smelled something like burning rubber and began racing through the cars of a moving train to get away. The Victoria Line train entered Warren Street station seconds later and hundreds of people streamed onto the street, eyewitnesses told the AP.

Near the bus explosion, firefighters and police, some with bomb-sniffing dogs, sealed off a city block of restaurants, shops and apartments. Residents peered through the curtains of upper floor windows, speaking on cell phones.

With fear spreading to other capitals, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said authorities would begin conducting random searches of packages and backpacks carried by people entering the subway.

But Transport for London, which runs the British capital's bus and transport network, rejected such measures. Spokesman Steve Taylor said it would be impractical to check bags or install airport-style metal detectors and X-ray machines. London buses and subways carry 9 million passengers a day.

"We are running a massive transport infrastructure," he told the AP. "Would people accept an additional 30 to 40 minutes on their journey every morning and afternoon? It would bring the network to a standstill."

Dozens of people living near the attacks were unable to return home by late Thursday evening, and police set up reception areas to help them.

Among those affected was Eileen Moreland, 91, who has lived since 1950 in an apartment complex above Warren Street station.

"I'm feeling a bit shaky because I haven't been very well and I find it difficult to walk," she said.

For some commuters, the new closures would hardly matter. Fethi Brandou, 36-year-old gardener, said he'd be reluctant to take the Underground again- no matter what.

"I wouldn't take the Tube now," he said. "I'll buy a bicycle or walk."

---

Associated Press writers Thin Lei Win, Kate Bouey, Brian Murphy, Beth Gardiner, Jason Keyser, Jill Lawless, Sarah Blaskovich and Michael McDonough in London contributed to this report.

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.