Explosion On London Train Treated As Terrorism, Leaves 29 Injured

Parsons Green incident. An injured woman is assisted by a police officer close to Parsons Green station in west London after Scotland Yard declared a terrorist incident following a blast sent a "fireball" a... Parsons Green incident. An injured woman is assisted by a police officer close to Parsons Green station in west London after Scotland Yard declared a terrorist incident following a blast sent a "fireball" and a "wall of flame" through a packed London Underground train. Picture date: Friday September 15, 2017. See PA story TRANSPORT Explosion. Photo credit should read: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire URN:32824607 MORE LESS
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LONDON (AP) — A homemade bomb planted in a rush-hour subway car injured 29 people in London on Friday, sparking a huge manhunt for the perpetrators of what police said was the fourth terrorist attack in the British capital this year.

Prime Minister Theresa May said the device “was intended to cause significant harm,” but to the relief of authorities and Londoners, the bomb — hidden in a plastic bucket inside a supermarket freezer bag — only partially exploded, sparing the city much worse carnage.

“I would say this was a failed high-explosive device,” Chris Hunter, a former British army bomb expert, said of the blast, which caused no serious injuries.

The bomb went off around 8:20 a.m. as the train, carrying commuters from the suburbs — including many school children — was at Parsons Green station in the southwest of the city.

Witness Chris Wildish told Sky News that he saw “out of the corner of my eye, a massive flash of flames that went up the side of the train,” followed by “an acrid chemical smell.”

Commuter Lauren Hubbard said she was on the train when she heard a loud bang.

“I looked around and this wall of fire was just coming toward us,” Hubbard said. She said her instinct was “just run,” and she fled the above-ground station with her boyfriend.

Chaos ensued as hundreds of people, some of them suffering burns, poured from the train, which can hold up to 800 people.

“I ended up squashed on the staircase. People were falling over, people fainting, crying. There were little kids clinging onto the back of me,” said another commuter, Ryan Barnett.

Passenger Luke Walmsley said it was “like every man for himself to get down the stairs.”

“People were just pushing,” he added. “There were nannies or mums asking where their children were.”

Police and health officials said 29 people were treated in London hospitals, most of them for flash burns. None of the injuries were serious or life-threatening, the emergency services said.

Trains were suspended along a stretch of the Underground’s District Line, and several homes were evacuated as police set up a 50-meter (150-foot) cordon around the scene while they secured the device and launched a search for those who planted it.

The Metropolitan Police said hundreds of detectives, along with agents of the domestic spy agency MI5, were looking at surveillance camera footage, carrying out forensic work and speaking to witnesses.

Among questions they were rushing to answer: What was the device made from, and was it meant to go off when it did, in a leafy, affluent part of the city far from London’s top tourist sites?

British media reported that the bomb included a timer. Lewis Herrington, a terrorism expert at Loughborough University, said that would set it apart from suicide attacks like those on the London subway in 2005 or at Manchester Arena in May, in which the attackers “all wanted to die.”

Photos taken inside the train showed a white plastic bucket inside a foil-lined shopping bag, with flames and what appeared to be wires emerging from the top.

Terrorism analyst Magnus Ranstorp of the Swedish Defense University said that from the photos it appeared the bomb did not fully detonate, as much of the device and its casing remained intact.

“They were really lucky with this one, it could have really become much worse,” he said.

Hunter, the explosives expert, said it appeared that “there was a bang, a bit of a flash, and that would suggest that, potentially, some of the explosive detonated, the detonator detonated, but much of the explosive was effectively inert.”

Police and ambulances were on the scene within minutes of the blast, a testament to their experience at responding to violent attacks in London. The city has been a target for decades: from Irish Republican Army bombers, right-wing extremists and, more recently, attackers inspired by al-Qaida or the Islamic State group.

In its recent Inspire magazine, al-Qaida urged supporters to target trains.

Britain has seen four other terrorist attacks this year, which killed a total of 36 people. The other attacks in London — near Parliament, on London Bridge and near a mosque in Finsbury Park in north London — used vehicles and knives. Similar methods have been used in attacks across Europe, including in Nice, Stockholm, Berlin and Barcelona.

In contrast Friday’s attack involved the “detonation of an improvised explosive device,” said Mark Rowley, head of counterterrorism for the Metropolitan Police.

After chairing a meeting of the government’s COBRA emergency committee, the prime minister said that Britain’s official threat level from terrorism remained at “severe,” meaning an attack is highly likely, and was not being raised to critical.

The country’s threat level was briefly raised to critical, meaning an attack may be imminent, after the May 22 suicide bombing at Manchester Arena that killed 22 people.

British authorities say they have foiled 19 plots since the middle of 2013, six of them since the van and knife attack on Westminster Bridge and Parliament in March, which killed five people. Police and MI5 say that at any given time they are running about 500 counterterrorism investigations involving 3,000 individuals.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said there had been a “shift” in the terrorism threat, with attackers using a wide range of methods to try to inflict carnage. Khan, who belongs to the opposition Labour Party, said London police needed more resources to fight the threat. Police budgets have been cut since 2010 by Britain’s Conservative government.

The London Underground, which handles 5 million journeys a day, has been targeted several times in the past. In July 2005, suicide bombers blew themselves up on three subway trains and a bus, killing 52 people and themselves. Four more bombers tried a similar attack two weeks later, but their devices failed to fully explode.

Last year Damon Smith, a student with an interest in weapons and Islamic extremism, left a knapsack filled with explosives and ball bearings on a London subway train. It failed to explode.

U.S. President Donald Trump weighed in on Friday’s attack, tweeting that it was carried out “by a loser terrorist,” and adding that “these are sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard.”

The British prime minister gently rebuked the president for his tweets.

“I never think it’s helpful for anybody to speculate on what is an ongoing investigation,” May said.

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Notable Replies

  1. Trump has already managed to turn this into an international relations disaster, claiming that Scotland Yard was watching the perpetrator and failed to stop this "loser." May is claiming he has no idea what he is twitting about and yet again shows he can’t be trusted with sensitive intelligence, especially if there are other bombs or plots out there. Trump just blurts.

  2. he never misses an opportunity to step on his dick. And I pray that the people of the world recognize that he doesn’t really represent the United States as a country or a culture.

    ETA: just read

    Nick Timothy, the former Downing Street chief of staff, branded the intervention ‘so unhelpful’ this afternoon - but questioned whether the President’s tweet was based on actual intelligence.

    Nope.

  3. Avatar for paulw paulw says:

    Any loon can do this kind of thing. I’m glad not that many people were injured.

  4. As he does after every disaster, Trumpp used his great store of knowledge and experience to analyze the impact of the disaster on the images of any brands associated with the event. Some disasters produce winners (US Coast Guard), and some produce losers (Scotland Yard).

    A great leader like Trumpp isn’t going to stand by and let confusion reign in the aftermath of a tragedy.

  5. U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that it was another attack “by a
    loser terrorist,” adding that “these are sick and demented people who
    were in the sights of Scotland Yard.”The London police force declined to comment on Trump’s suggestion that it knew about the attacker.

    No need to wait for ‘facts’ since we know facts have a liberal bias.
    Right Donnie
    What a fraud.
    A bigoted carnival barker president.

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