22 INJURED IN LONDON TUBE STATION BLAST

An improvised explosive device was detonated during morning rush hour

LONDON

AEARL MAIZE, ‘Cassini’ project manager

T least 22 people were injured when a bomb detonated on a packed London Underground train during the morning rush hour yesterday, in what police are treating as a “terrorist incident”.

Witnesses reported seeing a “wall of fire”, and passengers with facial burns and hair coming off at Parsons Green station in west London after the explosion.

“At 8.20am, at Parsons Green station, there was an explosion on a Tube train. We now assess that this was a detonation of an improvised explosive device,” police counterterror chief Mark Rowley said.

Twitter user @Rrigs, who posted pictures of a white bucket smouldering on the train, said: “Explosion on Parsons Green District Line train. Fireball flew down carriage and we just jumped out open door.”

The bucket looked like the type used by builders and there appeared to be cables coming out of it. According to Sky News, investigators suspected the device did not fully detonate.

The National Health Service said 18 people were taken by ambulance to hospital, while four others made their own way to hospitals.

Rowley said most of the people taken to hospital were being treated for “flash burns”. The MI5 intelligence service was assisting investigators. An armed police officer standing guard outside the Parsons Green underground tube station in west London yesterday. (Inset) Personal belongings and a bucket with an item on fire inside it are seen on the floor of a train carriage at Parsons Green station.

Prime Minister Theresa May said her thoughts were with the injured and would chair an emergency cabinet meeting later in the day.

Armed police and sniffer dogs were seen on the train and around the station, which is set in a leafy suburb of southwest London popular with well-off commuters and filled with chic cafes.

The station was closed, as well as an entire section of the District Line where it is located, and police urged people to stay away from the area.

Local residents and businesses rallied together with businesses offering tea and the use of their toilets to local residents unable to get home.

The incident is the fifth terror attack in six months in Britain since March, when a lone attacker mowed down pedestrians and stabbed a police officer outside the British Parliament.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan urged Londoners to remain “calm and vigilant”.

“As London has proven again and again, we will never be intimidated or defeated by terrorism,” he said in a statement. AFP