Police free student, 21, held over Tube bomb
A SYRIAN refugee arrested over the Parsons Green Tube terror attack was last night released without charge.
Scotland Yard said student Yahyah Farroukh, 21, would face no further action – five days after his arrest outside the fried chicken takeaway where he worked in West London.
After his arrest last Saturday, his sister said: ‘Yahyah is innocent, we know he is. He could never hurt a fly. Why would he hurt the family that adopted him or the country that welcomed him?’
Meanwhile, a 17-year-old boy living in a ‘halfway house’ for asylum seekers and ‘troubled’ teenagers yesterday became the sixth suspect to be held over last Friday’s potentially catastrophic bombing.
He was arrested in a midnight raid on a property in Thornton Heath, South London.
Counter-terror police were last night still holding an 18-year- old man arrested at the Port of Dover the day after the failed attack.
The refugee, understood to be the suspected bomber, is believed, along with Mr Farroukh, to have spent time in foster care with Penelope and Ronald Jones, who have received MBEs for services to children and families.
The investigation into the rushhour bombing, which injured 30 people, has also resulted in three men aged 25, 30 and 48, being held in Newport, South Wales. Police later released the 48-year-old.
The 17-year-old suspect was held after 20 police officers stormed the end- of-terrace house in Thornton Heath shortly after midnight. Forensic officers spent the day searching the five-bedroom property.
Neighbour Pamela Emanuel, 54, said police visited the house frequently – ‘at least every other week’ – and that the current group of ‘young foreign teenagers’ had lived there for no more than six months.
She said the house was used for people with a question mark over their immigration status, and described the group as ‘unsupervised’.
The arrest came as searches continued at two addresses in Newport, while police said ongoing searches of houses in Sunbury- on-Thames and Stanwell in Surrey were expected to ‘last some days’.
Commander Dean Haydon, of Scotland Yard, said: ‘This continues to be a fast-moving investigation. A significant amount of activity has taken place since the attack on Friday.’
Meanwhile, friends of the third man arrested over the bombing said they ‘can’t believe’ he was involved.
The 25-year-old, named locally as Bilal, was arrested in Newport at 7pm on Tuesday.
One friend said: ‘He is a very good guy, I can’t believe this. He is Kurdish – he describes terrorists like ISIS as stupid.’
‘Fast-moving investigation’