Controlled blast in Tube ‘bomb’ alert

SCOTLAND Yard was on high alert last night as counter-terrorist police investigated a suspected bomb on a Tube train.

Army bomb squad experts triggered a controlled explosion after the ‘suspicious item’ was found near the O2 arena.

Hundreds of people were evacuated when a member of staff raised the alarm on an eastbound Jubilee Line train at North Greenwich station in south-east London.

A manhunt was launched in a bid to identify who left the package on the train, which had passed under Westminster and Canary Wharf.

Analysts were last night scouring CCTV footage from the train and the 23 stations it passed through as it travelled across London. They will also use records of electronic travel payments by Oyster and bank cards in an attempt to identify anyone linked to the package.

It is understood that thousands of officers were on standby last night as forensic experts worked to determine exactly what it was.

They will flood the streets of the capital to reassure the public if it is found to have been a viable bomb or if a terrorist link is discovered.

Last night, the force took the unusual step of confirming that counter-terrorist detectives are responsible for the inquiry.

One security source said: ‘It is too early to know if it is terrorism but that is our concern. This is being treated extremely seriously.’

The scare on the Underground evoked memories of the murders of 52 travellers in co-ordinated terrorist attacks by four Islamist suicide bombers on the Tube and a London doubledecker bus on July 7 2005.

It is understood that senior officers, including Scotland Yard commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, were kept updated during a remembrance service for fallen officers in Hendon, North London, yesterday.

They were told there was ‘credible intelligence’ that the package was linked to terrorism as the investigation unfolded.

The alert was triggered shortly after 11am and hundreds were evacuated from the station within minutes. Police enforced a cordon roughly the size of six football pitches. More than 50 officers, some with sniffer dogs, kept people away from the station and surrounding roads.