Tube bomb police make sixth arrest
DETECTIVES hunting the Parsons Green rush-hour bombers arrested a sixth suspect yesterday when a teenager was seized in a midnight raid.
The 17-year-old boy was held after officers raided a “halfway house” in south London.
Forensic experts scoured the three-storey property which houses asylum seekers being dealt with by the Home Office.
The bomb attack on a London Underground train last week injured 30 commuters, including schoolchildren.
Searches
The fast-moving investigation has already seen two men aged 25 and 30 detained in Newport, south Wales. A third, aged 48, was released last night with no further action.
A 21-year-old named as Yahyah Farroukh was arrested in Hounslow, west London and an 18-year-old was detained at the Port of Dover. Scotland Yard last night said it had released Syrian-born Farroukh with no further action planned.
The four remaining males are being held at a south London police station.
Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “This continues to be a fast-moving investigation. Detectives are carrying out extensive inquiries to determine the full facts behind the attack.”
Searches are continuing at two addresses in Newport and houses in Sunbury-on-Thames and Stanwell in Surrey.
The latest raid was in Thornton Heath, where the 17-year-old was arrested under section 41 of the Terrorism Act. Officers appeared to be clearing an overgrown rear garden while investigators removed bags from the house and took items, including a wheelie bin, into a forensic tent put up outside.
Pamela Emanuel, 54, a neighbour, said police frequently visited the house and it was occupied by “foreign teenagers”. She believed it was used for those with questionable immigration status. She added: “They are friendly enough. Quiet.”
The home-made bucket bomb partly detonated on the Tube with the injured suffering flash burns.