Nation & World

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Do you have a news tip? newstips@heraldnet.com | 425.339.3400   Published: Saturday, June 30, 2007 Brits thwart bomb plot The Washington Post LONDON - British police thwarted a pair of apparent terrorist attacks in central London's crowded theater district Friday, defusing bombs fashioned from gasoline, gas cylinders and nails and hidden inside two parked Mercedes sedans. Police said that if the explosives had detonated, they could have killed or injured hundreds of people. Police found the first car - a pale green Mercedes parked outside the upscale, three-story Tiger Tiger nightclub near Piccadilly Circus - by accident. An ambulance crew responding to an unrelated call at 1:30 a.m. noticed smoke in the vehicle and alerted authorities. According to British television reports, a police officer found a cellphone inside the vehicle that was to be the bomb's trigger and turned it off. The second car, a blue Mercedes, was parked nearby about the same time. But around 2:30 a.m., the car was ticketed by London's ever-efficient parking enforcers and an hour later was towed to an underground garage at Hyde Park, police said. It was only many hours later, after news of the first bomb blanketed the airwaves, that workers notified police that the towed car reeked of gasoline. No one asserted responsibility for the bombs, and police announced no arrests. But a senior government official said the two explosives appeared to be "al-Qaida-inspired." Peter Clarke, who heads Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism efforts, said the bombs' similarity indicated that they were probably the work of the same people. "The threat from terrorism is real," Clarke said. "It is here, enduring. Life must go on, but we must stay alert." Since Britain joined the United States in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Muslim extremists have issued constant threats of bombings and sometimes carried them out. Next week is the second anniversary of the July 7 subway and bus attacks that killed 52 people and four suicide bombers. British police increased car checks and security measures Friday at the continuing Wimbledon Championships tennis tournament and were reviewing security measures for Sunday's concert at Wembley Stadium in honor of Princess Diana that is to be broadcast worldwide. Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, appealed "to all sections of the community, Muslims and non-Muslims, if they have any information to come forward" and tell police. Police said they were studying footage from the many closed-circuit security cameras near Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square in hopes of determining the routes the two cars took and getting images of the drivers. According to early news accounts, the first car was seen traveling erratically. It struck something and was abandoned.

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