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Blasts hit London again, 2 weeks after bombings
[size=-1]By Richard Meares and Gerard Wynn
Reuters
Thursday, July 21, 2005; 11:49 AM
[/size]
<NITF>LONDON (Reuters) - Four small coordinated explosions hit London's transport network on Thursday, but caused no fatalities, exactly 2 weeks after bombers killed more than 50 people on underground trains and a bus in the capital.
Part of the underground train network was shut, but police reassured the public that the emergency was not as serious as 2 weeks ago, and Prime Minister Tony Blair called for calm.
London police chief Ian Blair told reporters: "We know that we've had four explosions or attempts at explosions. It is still pretty unclear what's happened ... The bombs appear to be smaller than the last occasion."
He said some devices appeared not to have gone off properly and only one person was injured, adding that he hoped London would now "get moving" again.
"I smelled the smell, this terrible smell. I couldn't breathe," said Ingrid Guyon, evacuated from a train at the Oval underground station in south London.
Another witness at the Oval, Andrea, reported what appeared to be a would-be bomber alone in a carriage after a small blast:
"We all got off on the platform and the guy just ran and started running up the escalator... He left a bag on the train."
The prime minister told a news conference:
"We know why these things are done. They are done to scare people ... We've got to react calmly."
LUNCHTIME EMERGENCY
The emergency, at around 1 p.m. (1200 GMT), coincided with a memorial service for victims of the attacks of July 7.
Then, four young British Muslims detonated bombs in three underground trains and a bus at morning rush hour, killing more than 50 people and shocking a capital that had hitherto been spared al Qaeda-style attacks on civilians. Those bombings confronted Britain's people and politicians with the prospect the country could be nurturing its own generation of Osama bin Laden-style Islamist militants such as those who inflicted carnage in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, in Bali and on Madrid trains last year.
The attacks have also forced Blair to defend himself against accusations that Britain's staunch support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and its troops' participation in the occupation, have made it a target for Islamic militants.
A poll published on Tuesday indicated that two-thirds of Britons think the July 7 bombings were linked to Iraq.
The prime minister refused to be drawn by questions on whether his policy had put Londoners at risk, saying:
"The terrorist attacks go back over 10 years ... The people who are responsible for terrorist attacks are the terrorists."
All four bombers died in the July 7 attacks, leading most people to assume they had been suicide bombers.
Britain's leading shares fell sharply on news of the latest incidents, but recovered once it appeared that the effect of the latest attacks would not be on the same scale as 2 weeks ago.
The pound fell against the euro and the dollar, but the impact was short-lived here too.
NATURE OF ATTACKS UNCLEAR
In the first hours, the nature of the attacks was unclear.
"The worst-case scenario ... would be that these are devices that haven't triggered properly. Beyond that, it looks like it may be people messing around, copycat-type stuff," said Shane Brighton of the Royal United Services Institute in London.
Robert Ayers of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) said it appeared that Britain now had to deal with a concerted militant campaign.
"You had four guys that died (on July 7), but the infrastructure that trained them, equipped them, funded them, pointed them at the right target -- the infrastructure's still in place, still here."
The RIIA said in a report this week that Britain's backing for the American invasion of Iraq and its bloody aftermath had boosted recruitment and fund-raising for al Qaeda.
The July 7 bombs, which were claimed on the Internet by a little-known Islamic militant group, coincided with a summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations in Scotland.
The leaders, including Bush, appeared shoulder to shoulder with Blair to express solidarity and a determination not to give in to terrorism, and proceeded with the summit.
"The security issues have just got 500 percent greater," said Jeremy Hodges, head of foreign exchange sales at Lloyds TSB bank. "It will reflect badly on the economy, on tourism, and you have got to suggest that we are going to cut (interest) rates."
Blair had been scheduled to hold a meeting with police and intelligence chiefs to discuss whether new legislation was needed following the July 7 attacks, which caught the security services off guard.
Pakistani security forces have arrested a British Muslim, Haroon Rashid Aswad, believed to be linked to the July 7 bombings, according to Pakistani intelligence sources.
Pakistan has been a focus of the investigation into July 7 because three of the four suspected suicide bombers were of ethnic Pakistani origin and had visited the country.
FOUR INCIDENTS
Emergency services rushed to three underground stations in or near central London and to the site of a blast on a bus in the east of the city.
One witness told Sky TV a passenger on a train near Warren Street underground station -- close to the scene of two of the July 7 bombs in central London -- had told him of a small explosion in a passenger's rucksack.
A source at the underground transport company said a nail bomb had exploded at the station.
Transport authorities said no injuries had been reported. Shortly after the incident, several dozen armed police scoured an adjacent hospital for a suspect.
The witness named Andrea who was on a train traveling through Oval told BBC television that passengers had seen what could have been a would-be bomber running away after dropping a rucksack on the train.
"It sounded like a balloon had popped but a lot louder and then we all moved to one end of the carriage. There was something on the floor and you could see something had exploded.
"We moved through -- they opened the door so we could move through to the next carriage and there was a guy still standing in the carriage."
[size=-1]By Richard Meares and Gerard Wynn
Reuters
Thursday, July 21, 2005; 11:49 AM
[/size]
<NITF>LONDON (Reuters) - Four small coordinated explosions hit London's transport network on Thursday, but caused no fatalities, exactly 2 weeks after bombers killed more than 50 people on underground trains and a bus in the capital.
Part of the underground train network was shut, but police reassured the public that the emergency was not as serious as 2 weeks ago, and Prime Minister Tony Blair called for calm.
London police chief Ian Blair told reporters: "We know that we've had four explosions or attempts at explosions. It is still pretty unclear what's happened ... The bombs appear to be smaller than the last occasion."
He said some devices appeared not to have gone off properly and only one person was injured, adding that he hoped London would now "get moving" again.
"I smelled the smell, this terrible smell. I couldn't breathe," said Ingrid Guyon, evacuated from a train at the Oval underground station in south London.
Another witness at the Oval, Andrea, reported what appeared to be a would-be bomber alone in a carriage after a small blast:
"We all got off on the platform and the guy just ran and started running up the escalator... He left a bag on the train."
The prime minister told a news conference:
"We know why these things are done. They are done to scare people ... We've got to react calmly."
LUNCHTIME EMERGENCY
The emergency, at around 1 p.m. (1200 GMT), coincided with a memorial service for victims of the attacks of July 7.
Then, four young British Muslims detonated bombs in three underground trains and a bus at morning rush hour, killing more than 50 people and shocking a capital that had hitherto been spared al Qaeda-style attacks on civilians. Those bombings confronted Britain's people and politicians with the prospect the country could be nurturing its own generation of Osama bin Laden-style Islamist militants such as those who inflicted carnage in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, in Bali and on Madrid trains last year.
The attacks have also forced Blair to defend himself against accusations that Britain's staunch support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and its troops' participation in the occupation, have made it a target for Islamic militants.
A poll published on Tuesday indicated that two-thirds of Britons think the July 7 bombings were linked to Iraq.
The prime minister refused to be drawn by questions on whether his policy had put Londoners at risk, saying:
"The terrorist attacks go back over 10 years ... The people who are responsible for terrorist attacks are the terrorists."
All four bombers died in the July 7 attacks, leading most people to assume they had been suicide bombers.
Britain's leading shares fell sharply on news of the latest incidents, but recovered once it appeared that the effect of the latest attacks would not be on the same scale as 2 weeks ago.
The pound fell against the euro and the dollar, but the impact was short-lived here too.
NATURE OF ATTACKS UNCLEAR
In the first hours, the nature of the attacks was unclear.
"The worst-case scenario ... would be that these are devices that haven't triggered properly. Beyond that, it looks like it may be people messing around, copycat-type stuff," said Shane Brighton of the Royal United Services Institute in London.
Robert Ayers of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) said it appeared that Britain now had to deal with a concerted militant campaign.
"You had four guys that died (on July 7), but the infrastructure that trained them, equipped them, funded them, pointed them at the right target -- the infrastructure's still in place, still here."
The RIIA said in a report this week that Britain's backing for the American invasion of Iraq and its bloody aftermath had boosted recruitment and fund-raising for al Qaeda.
The July 7 bombs, which were claimed on the Internet by a little-known Islamic militant group, coincided with a summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations in Scotland.
The leaders, including Bush, appeared shoulder to shoulder with Blair to express solidarity and a determination not to give in to terrorism, and proceeded with the summit.
"The security issues have just got 500 percent greater," said Jeremy Hodges, head of foreign exchange sales at Lloyds TSB bank. "It will reflect badly on the economy, on tourism, and you have got to suggest that we are going to cut (interest) rates."
Blair had been scheduled to hold a meeting with police and intelligence chiefs to discuss whether new legislation was needed following the July 7 attacks, which caught the security services off guard.
Pakistani security forces have arrested a British Muslim, Haroon Rashid Aswad, believed to be linked to the July 7 bombings, according to Pakistani intelligence sources.
Pakistan has been a focus of the investigation into July 7 because three of the four suspected suicide bombers were of ethnic Pakistani origin and had visited the country.
FOUR INCIDENTS
Emergency services rushed to three underground stations in or near central London and to the site of a blast on a bus in the east of the city.
One witness told Sky TV a passenger on a train near Warren Street underground station -- close to the scene of two of the July 7 bombs in central London -- had told him of a small explosion in a passenger's rucksack.
A source at the underground transport company said a nail bomb had exploded at the station.
Transport authorities said no injuries had been reported. Shortly after the incident, several dozen armed police scoured an adjacent hospital for a suspect.
The witness named Andrea who was on a train traveling through Oval told BBC television that passengers had seen what could have been a would-be bomber running away after dropping a rucksack on the train.
"It sounded like a balloon had popped but a lot louder and then we all moved to one end of the carriage. There was something on the floor and you could see something had exploded.
"We moved through -- they opened the door so we could move through to the next carriage and there was a guy still standing in the carriage."
