Car bomb found near Piccadilly Circus in London!

[Raph's Girl]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070629/...tain_bomb_dc_6

British police defused a bomb in an abandoned car in London's theatre district on Friday and launched a counter-terrorism investigation.

The bomb, which Sky News quoted unidentified sources as saying was "potentially massive," was found inside a light green Mercedes left outside a nightclub in the early hours of Friday, a police officer quoted witnesses as saying.

The witnesses said the occupant drove "erratically" before smashing into some 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.

Officers sealed off the area at around 2 a.m. (0100 GMT) and found a bomb, the Metropolitan police said.

"They discovered what appeared to be a potentially viable explosive device. This was made safe," they said, adding that counter-terrorism officers were investigating.

The discovery came hours after new Prime Minister Gordon Brown named a cabinet to succeed Tony Blair. It posed a first major challenge for Brown's administration, and particularly his new home secretary, Jacqui Smith.

Smith was to chair a meeting of the government's top emergency committee, Cobra, on Friday, Brown said.

"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, in his third day in office, told reporters.

"This incident does recall the need for us to be vigilant at all times and the public to be alert."

Security around parliament was stepped up, with police body-searching drivers of vehicles entering the compound.

The bomb alert came almost two years after a series of coordinated suicide bomb attacks on London's transport network killed 52 commuters, the first Islamist suicide bombings in western Europe. London has frequently been on edge since.

AL QAEDA LINK?

Terrorism experts said an al Qaeda connection to the potential attack could not be dismissed.

"We couldn't rule it out," a security source said, 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.

"Numerically speaking, al Qaeda is a strong possibility but it just is too early to attribute specifically.

"It would be wrong and short-sighted to rule out domestic options as well. Obviously there are various extremist groups out there too," the source added.

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.

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 at the scene said it could be several hours before the area was cleared.

Office workers unable to enter their buildings to start the work day milled outside, watching the police operation.

"We've been standing out here for a couple of hours," said David Way, 29, the director of a recruitment company based in the same street as where the car was abandoned. "I suspect we're going to hang around until lunchtime and see what happens."

A London Transport spokesman said Piccadilly underground station was closed and some bus services were also affected.

Haymarket is usually thronged with Londoners and tourists. It is close to Piccadilly Circus in an area packed with theatres, restaurants and pubs.

Edit: Im watching the news conference right now. They're saying the car was smoking so they decided to investigate. So whoever set it off thankfully failed. Yeesh. The bouncer saw the person who set it running away. There was tons of gas (about 52 gallons), nails, and other devices in the car (a silver mercedes from the looks of it on tv)

[Dinny]

Kind of worrying how he could have potentially gotten away with it if he hadn't drawn attention to himself by driving into the bins.

[Raph's Girl]

Gah: 4 terrorists on the lose in London. They escaped custody and authorities don't know if there is a link between them and the car bomb.

Meanwhile authorities are checking out other suspicious vehicles in different spots of London (one near Hyde Park)

[RaphistheBest]

Wow... good thing this idiot couldn't park a car without drawing attention to himself. Maybe there isn't any link to terrorists at all. Maybe the reason this was done was because that Brown guy ended up as Prime Minister.

[Scandia]

Very scary. I am making a trip out of state next weekend and I am terrified, since things are not as tight there as they are in here.

[Raph's Girl]

News Flash: Another explosive device was found in another Mercedes in London. This time at Hyde Park. Boy those bad guys sure do love Mercedes.

[RaphistheBest]

Well, it sounds like the authorities will have the hands full with this for a while. Quite scary.

[Drtooth]

Jeezzz... I wonder which one of a million lame ass Al Queda wanna be "I grew up in a wealthy first world country with upper middle class parents" fakey terrorist group is behind this? Maybe a bunch of white kids who think it's cool to be turdwipes.

[Raph's Girl]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070630/...ain_bomb_dc_25

A four-wheel-drive vehicle crashed into the main terminal at Glasgow airport on Saturday and exploded in flames, a day after police foiled a possible al Qaeda plot to detonate two car bombs in central London.

A Glasgow police spokeswoman said there were no immediate reports of any injuries and said the blaze was under control.

Witnesses told the BBC that the vehicle, a Land Rover or a Jeep Cherokee, had exploded shortly after crashing into the glass front doors of the terminal, and said there was a heavy stench of petrol.

"It raced across the central reservation and went straight into the building," said taxi driver Ian Crosby outside the terminal.

Crosby said a stocky Asian man had got out of the car and was quickly wrestled to the ground by bystanders.

"It would appear to me to have been a deliberate attack. I think this was a terrorist attack," Crosby said.

In London, police scoured hours of CCTV footage and extra squads were deployed on the streets, particularly around landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament after Friday's failed car bomb attacks in the centre of the city.

However, tourists and Londoners appeared largely unperturbed, going about their business as usual.

An intensive counter-terrorism investigation was launched after the discovery in the early hours of Friday of a metallic green Mercedes packed with up to 60 litres of fuel, several gas canisters and a large quantity of nails.

The vehicle was parked outside the Tiger Tiger night club in the busy theatreland district of London, and aroused suspicion only after ambulance workers, treating someone else, thought they had noticed smoke inside the vehicle.

A mobile phone, which security experts believed might have been a detonation device, was left inside the fume-filled car.

A second Mercedes packed with gas and nails was later found to have been parked just a few hundred yards from the first.

Police said the two vehicles were clearly linked. Both bombs were quickly defused but, had they gone off, would have caused significant injuries and deaths, police said.

JULY 2005 ATTACKS

The thwarted bomb plot came to light two years after a coordinated attack by suicide bombers on London's transport system killed 52 commuters. It appeared to have similarities to an earlier plot in which an al Qaeda militant planned to blow up gas-filled bombs inside limousines in London.

Plans for policing of public events in the coming 10 days were reviewed to ensure public security, including a Gay Pride parade in London on Saturday, the Wimbledon tennis tournament and a concert for Princess Diana on Sunday.

"Appropriate policing will be in place for all events," a police spokeswoman said. "Safety and security is our number one priority."

Despite the continuing threat, tourists were stoical.

"You could be safe anywhere or you could be safe nowhere. It hasn't put me off traveling here," said Ivonne Geller, 49, a tourist from Mexico strolling outside the Tiger Tiger club.

"I just feel angry about the methods of these people who try to harm innocent people."

Intelligence sources believe there is a growing probability that the plot was hatched by an al Qaeda-style group.

"The feeling it is Islamist, rather than the other possibilities, is very quietly growing stronger," a source said.

The area of London where the car bombs were left, known as Haymarket, is one of the busiest in the capital and one of the most intensely monitored by CCTV surveillance.

Police said they were studying hundreds of hours of footage in the hunt for possible suspects. The U.S. television channel ABC reported that a "crystal clear" image of a suspect had been found, but British police would not confirm that.

[ZariusTwo]

Live coverage of the event as it unfolded, Prime Minister's only proclamation was this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_9hJ...elated&search=

[Raph's Girl]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

Live coverage of the event as it unfolded, Prime Minister's only proclamation was this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_9hJ...elated&search=

*rotflmao*

Anyways... One of the 2 Asian men involved in the glasgow airport car explosion has died from the burn wounds he got in the explosion,.

[ZariusTwo]

It's really inane to think this was probably set to happen the instant Brown got into power, and noone knew about it. The last great error of Blair's administration. Well done idiot.

[iris]

I'm not fan of Blair, but with the very low level of competence these attempted bombings demonstrate, it makes me doubt there was much planning for the gov't to hear of, regardless of who was in charge.

Or, then again: http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/...ned-of-gl.html

I wish the tv news media would stop with the "OMG AL QAEDA?! UK UNDER SIEGE!" stuff. It's really irritating that the media contributes to the terrorists' terror-making that way.

[Swany]

I have to say I'd always hoped Scotland would be safe from stuff like this as stupid as it sounds.

It's just every map shows the UK and then LONDON as the capital. And this one was too close to home for my liking, I'd deluded myself into beleiving Glasgow was safe.

Besides Glasgows bad enough. Everybody is a gangster and if you arent, you know one. One used to live less than a minutes walk, and an ex ganstser/witness/snitch lives near. and this is a wee urban/rural town.

[Raph's Girl]

Update:

There were actually 3 men involved in the Glasgow incident. Investigators found a charred body in the car.

Also 5 bystanders were injured.

[Anarky]

Please don't tell me that you canceled your holidays just so that you can copypaste the news for us...

[jenna]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

It's really inane to think this was probably set to happen the instant Brown got into power, and noone knew about it. The last great error of Blair's administration. Well done idiot.

It will be interesting to see how Brown copes with this. Historically he has never seemed able to concentrate on more than one thing at a time. This will be his first test as PM. Just don't mention inheritance tax.

[Swany]

Apparently theres been another attack at a hospital in Paisley.

[RaphistheBest]

Seriously?! Man, I'm really gonna have to start reading and watching the news more.

[Ra]

They've found a guy that is believed to be linked to all of this. Found in the lovely city of Brisbane, Australia.

Man held in Qld over UK terror plot

A hospital registrar is being questioned by police after being arrested at Brisbane airport in connection with the failed UK terrorist plot.

The 27-year-old man, an Australian resident and registrar at the Gold Coast Hospital, was detained at Brisbane international airport on Monday night as he tried to leave the country, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said on Tuesday.

Federal and state police are searching a number of addresses in south-east Queensland, including the hospital, following the arrest about 11pm (AEST).

"The man is currently assisting police with their inquiries and no charges have been laid," Mr Ruddock told reporters.

"The individual concerned was seeking to leave Australia and I understand did not have a return ticket.

"The AFP and Queensland police can confirm that a number of search warrants have been issued and I understand they have been executed."

Mr Ruddock said there was no direct threat to Australia stemming from the man's arrest and the country's terror alert level remained unchanged.

"While these matters are obviously of concern, there is no information that suggests the terror alert at medium should be varied," he said.

"When I use those words I use them very deliberately because what it means is that while a terrorist attack could certainly be possible in Australia, we have no specific information about any such planned action here."

Mr Ruddock would not outline the link to the failed car bombings in central London and at Glasgow airport in recent days.

"We've received certain information but these are ongoing investigations and it's not really appropriate to discuss those matters which might prejudice investigations," he said.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said the man had not been on any Australian watch lists and the information had been obtained by British authorities over the weekend.

The man is the eighth person detained over the failed attacks on London and Glasgow.

Mr Ruddock would not say whether other people were being investigated in relation to the search warrants.

He also declined to tell reporters where the man had been heading when he was arrested at the international terminal on Monday night.

AAP understands the suspect had been about to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur on a one-way ticket, with a view to getting a connecting flight to India.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said there was no threat to Brisbane.

"Queenslanders, I just want to say, need to be calm about this," Mr Beattie said.

"We are not aware of any threat to any building or any activity in Queensland at all, so the threat remains as it was prior to this arrest."

Mr Beattie told ABC radio the detained man was not Australian-born.

He said further details would be provided at a media conference at 11.30am (AEST) in Brisbane.

Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) praised the police operation.

"BAC would like to stress that AFP advised airport authorities that at no stage was there any threat to Brisbane Airport, its buildings, passengers or aircraft," spokesman Jim Carden said.

http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/man...72903-lq4.html