Police charge man in attack

LONDON — British police on Friday charged an 18-year-old man with attempted murder and causing an explosion over last week’s bomb attack on the London subway.

Ahmed Hassan was accused of planting the bomb at Parsons Green station on Sept. 15. The Metropolitan Police force said Hassan is charged with attempting to “murder persons travelling on a District Line train” and of using a chemical compound known as TATP to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.

Hassan, who is originally from Iraq, spoke only to confirm his name and address during a brief court appearance on Friday. Prosecutors allege that he made the bomb from materials he ordered online and left it on the crowded subway train, getting off one stop before it exploded.

He was ordered detained until his next hearing on Oct. 13.

Hassan was arrested Saturday at the port of Dover, the departure point for ferries to France. After his arrest, police searched the suburban home of a couple who had fostered more than 200 children, including refugees from the Middle East.

Hassan confirmed in court that he lived at the address.

Thirty people were injured when the homemade bomb — hidden in a plastic bucket inside a plastic supermarket bag — partly detonated at the height of the morning rush hour.

London Police Chief Cressida Dick said Friday that the “very dangerous” bomb was packed with shrapnel and the carnage could have been much worse.

Police have arrested six people in all over the attack. Three — including a 17-year-old — have been released without charge, while two men remain in custody.. The Associated Press