Police swoop on teen Tube bomb suspect
A TERROR suspect was Tasered by police yesterday after a Tube bomb alert.
The 19-year-old was detained in a dramatic confrontation at a north London station.
Witnesses described plain- clothed officers swarming over the man before handcuffing him and taking him away for questioning.
Scotland Yard confirmed the unidentified teenager was being held on suspicion of preparing an act of terrorism.
The operation ended a manhunt involving dozens of officers following the discovery of a suspicious package on Thursday.
The capital was thrown into transport chaos after a member of staff found an apparently abandoned bag ‘full of wires’ on an eastbound Jubilee Line train.
Sources said the employee brought the bag into the driver’s cab before the alarm was raised over fears it could be an explosive device.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from North Greenwich Tube station, beside the O2 arena, as the Tube train pulled up.
Several hours later Army bomb disposal experts conducted a controlled explosion amid a huge security shutdown. Part of the Jubilee Line was closed for seven hours.
Yesterday’s arrest took place at 12.20pm near Holloway Road Tube station – about eight miles from where the suspected bomb was found.
One witness said he heard armed officers shouting ‘go, go, go’ as they jumped out of unmarked cars outside London Metropolitan University. ‘There was a person on the floor and there were ten people around and on top and blocking him,’ he said.
A shop worker added: ‘He was definitely Asian and he definitely had black hair. I couldn’t see whether he had a beard. Officers came from behind him and Tasered him. They jumped on him. He was on the floor.’
Counter-terror detectives are liaising with the security services and have not discounted a link to Islamic terrorism.
One source said: ‘It is looking like it was the right decision to blow it up.’
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: ‘Officers are keeping an open mind regarding any possible motive.’