Bomb plot with stamp of ‘Irish dissidents’
Terror police investigate Dublin postmark on devices sent to Heathrow and Waterloo
COUNTER-TERRORISM police were last night investigating a possible Irish dissident plot after improvised explosive devices were sent to three major London transport hubs.
The viable devices, one of which ignited and burst into flames when it was opened, were sent to offices at Heathrow Airport, City Airport and Waterloo Station.
The crude incendiary bombs, which were sent in Jiffy bags, all bore Irish postmarks and appeared to have been sent from addresses in Dublin.
Whitehall sources said searches were continuing to locate any other similar packages that might have been sent but not yet identified.
While security sources said it was too early to speculate who was behind the parcel bombs, they said dissident republican terrorism was one line of inquiry. A spokesman for Ireland’s Garda police confirmed they were assisting the Metropolitan Police with the investigation.
A Whitehall source added: “At least one of the packages had a Dublin postmark on it and we are linking the three packages. Clearly, the possibility that they were sent by some sort of dissident group can’t be discounted.”
While the devices were described as crude, terrorism experts said they could have caused injuries.
The incident comes a year after MI5 downgraded the threat of a British mainland terrorist attack by dissident republican groups, following a series of successful operations by police and counter-terrorism officials. But tensions have been mounting on both sides of the border in recent months as a result of the deadlock over Brexit preparations.
A spokesman for the Met Police said officers were treating the incidents as linked, but were keeping an “open mind” regarding motives.
The spokesman added: “The Met Police has issued advice to transport hubs across London to be vigilant for and report suspicious packages to police.”
Police were first alerted at 9.55am yesterday when an office worker based at the Compass House office block on the Heathrow site opened a suspicious parcel which burst into flames.
The modern building, which houses a number of offices associated with the airport’s administration, is a short distance from Terminal Five.
After the device ignited, the office block was evacuated as a precaution, but nobody was injured.
Specialist counter-terrorism officers attended the scene and ensured that the device was safe. There was no disruption to flights and passengers were unaffected by the incident.
Around two hours later, at 11.40am, another suspicious package was identified, this time around 20 miles away in the post room of Waterloo Station in central London.
Fortunately, suspicions were aroused before the package was opened and this time specialist officers from British Transport Police were called in to make the device safe.
The station was not evacuated and train services remained unaffected, but cordons were put in place to keep the public away from the area near the post room. At 12.10pm police were called to the City Aviation office block
at City Airport, around eight miles to the east, where staff had discovered another suspicious package.
Again, the package was not opened and police were able to make the device safe. Staff were evacuated as a precaution and, while flights to and from City Airport were unaffected during the operation, Docklands Light Railway services were temporarily suspended. The City Aviation block is a four-storey building situated less than a mile from the terminal buildings. Local workers reported seeing police and paramedics rushing to the City Airport incident around lunchtime.
Didier Valencia, 54, a concierge at the nearby Newham housing development, said he thought something had happened to an aircraft.
He said: “I saw about six vehicles: two ambulances, two police cars and the fire brigade, too. They turned left at the roundabout and headed towards Aviation House.”
Scotland Yard said the devices were contained in Jiffy bags inside A4-size plastic envelopes. On the top right hand of the packages, there were heart motif stamps that appeared to be the “2018 Love & Marriage stamp” available from Irish post offices.
On one of the packages there were the words “Bus Eireann” and “Dublin”, which appeared to refer to a transport company based in the Irish capital.
It was not immediately clear whether the information on the envelopes was genuine.
Security on the transport network was beefed up last night for the evening rush hour to reassure passengers. British Transport Police officers had been midway through a presentation at the Security Expo at the Olympia exhibition centre in London when they had to suddenly leave in order to be briefed on developments.
One source said: “While these devices are far from sophisticated and are unlikely to have caused any real harm, they do send a powerful message and will also cause alarm and fear. Police will now be working out what the motive is behind the campaign. It is more than four years since we saw a republican letter bomb campaign aimed at the mainland, but the uncertainty about the future of the Irish border after Brexit has certainly raised tensions and will be something that the police in London and Dublin will be looking at. However, it is important in investigations like this to keep an open mind.”
The last time dissidents plotted action on the mainland was in 2014 when a series of crude letter bombs were sent to Armed Forces’ recruiting offices across Britain.