2ND SUSPECT HELD OVER TUBE BOMBING
Police raid man’s foster home, sow doubt over IS claim of responsibility
POLICE said yesterday they had made a second arrest in connection with the bombing of a London Underground train, as their probe into the terror attack widened.
The 21-year-old man was detained on Saturday in Hounslow, on the western rim of the capital.
Officers had earlier arrested an 18-year-old man over Friday’s attack at Parsons Green station, which injured 30 people, and said they were hunting for more suspects. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said yesterday that police were trying to find out how the teenager “was radicalised”.
The bomb went off in a packed carriage and although the device is thought to have malfunctioned it still caused a large explosion followed by what eyewitnesses said was a “fireball”.
It was Britain’s fifth terror attack in six months — a series that has claimed 35 lives. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Friday’s explosion.
The first arrest on Saturday took place at the Dover ferry terminal — a main link to Europe. A “number of items” were recovered during the operation and the teenager was in custody here, officers said.
Police also raided a home in Sunbury, a town west of the capital on Saturday. Residents quoted in local media said the owners of the house were elderly foster parents.
Britain’s terror threat was raised on Friday to “critical”, indicating that another attack is feared, and soldiers have been deployed to guard key sites, including nuclear facilities.
The critical warning was last used after the deadly suicide attack at Manchester Arena, also claimed by IS, in May.
Rudd also doubted IS’s claim to being behind Friday’s incident.
“It is inevitable that so-called Islamic State or Daesh will try to claim responsibility, but we have no evidence to suggest that yet,” she told the BBC.
Rudd had also earlier dismissed as “pure speculation” United States President Donald Trump’s claim, made Friday on Twitter, that a “loser terrorist” behind the attack was known to Scotland Yard.
The tweet had already garnered a terse rebuke from Prime Minister Theresa May, who said: “I never think it’s helpful for anybody to speculate on what is an ongoing investigation.”
The improvised device at Parsons Green, a quiet and well-off residential district, failed to detonate fully. But the blast inflicted flash burns on passengers, and prompted dozens of others to flee in panic.
Louis Hather, 21, had been travelling to work and was three carriages down from where the explosion took place.
“I could smell the burning. Like when you burn plastic,” he said.
He was trampled on as panicking passengers stampeded out of the station, and his leg was badly cut and bruised.
In Paris , a London-bound British Airways flight was evacuated at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport yesterday due to a security scare, but was later cleared for take-off.
A spokesman for Aeroports de Paris said an incident “linked to security” had led staff to evacuate the 130 passengers onboard Heathrow-bound flight BA303.
“There was an incident that led authorities to decide to keep the plane on the ground and to disembark the passengers a few minutes before take-off, to carry out additional checks,” the spokesman said.
The checks were completed and the flight was able to take off shortly before noon, more than four hours late. AFP