STROLLING IN SUBURBIA, IS THIS THE BUCKET BOMBER?
ONE hand casually tucked in his pocket and the other clutching a Lidl bag, this young man could be heading to the shops.
But does this image show the Parsons Green bomber on his way to carry out the tube attack?
the footage was taken just 90 minutes before the blast on a packed district Line train. the man was captured on film near the home of ronald and Penny Jones – the foster parents of an 18-year-old iraqi refugee who is being questioned by police over the attack.
the shopping bag he is carrying matches the one that held the Parsons Green bomb.
Primed with an explosive known as ‘Mother of satan’, a timer and fairy lights, the device could have killed dozens. it failed to detonate properly, however, injuring 29.
Last night, it emerged that the home of a second refugee, who is believed to have family in scotland, is also being
investigated over the attack. Police spent yesterday searching the Heathrow home of Yahya Faroukh, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee. In other developments: Neighbours claimed the 18-yearold was a tearaway who was held by police just two weeks ago at the same Parsons Green station and had been spoken to by officers ‘several times’;
It emerged that he had been arrested by chance at Dover;
There were questions over the child refugee foster system amid concerns about the 18-year-old’s behaviour;
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon demanded that internet giants do more to take down extremist material;
The terror threat level was lowered from ‘critical’ to ‘severe’.
Although the threat level was lowered, sources claimed last night that police and MI5 were still hunticant’, ing another Syrian suspected of being involved in the plot.
In a dramatic 48 hours following the attack in West London, the 18year-old who is suspected of planting the powerful device on a rush hour Tube train was arrested by chance as he attempted to flee the country on Saturday.
Police pounced on the 18-yearold, who has yet to be identified, when two unarmed officers from Kent Police spotted him at the Port of Dover at 7.50am as he tried to buy a ferry ticket to Calais.
It is understood that as many eight SAS soldiers were part of the operation in Dover. Witnesses described seeing the teenager being spoken to calmly by two officers, before armed police and special forces moved in to arrest him.
Hours after his arrest, which Scotland Yard described as ‘signif- a second suspect was detained at a takeaway shop in Hounslow, west London.
The identity of the 21-year-old was not released, but police were yesterday searching the home of Syrian refugee Faroukh, in the shadow of Heathrow. He also previously lived in Sunbury with the Joneses.
Following the arrests Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced that the terror threat level had been reduced from its highest level of critical to severe.
The country had been warned that a terrorist attack could be ‘imminent’ after the Parsons Green suspect went on the run, but yesterday the immediate danger appeared to be over.
Both the 18-year-old suspect and Faroukh are thought to have arrived in Britain several years ago as refugees, having travelled across Europe to get to the so-called Jungle camp at Calais.
As an unaccompanied child the teenager was allowed entry to the UK and after being processed through a migrant centre in Kent, was found a home with the Joneses. The family are also thought to have taken in Faroukh who had travelled from his native Syria for a better life here in 2013.
Police swooped at the home of their foster parents on Saturday, where bomb disposal experts were brought in. Neighbours were evacuated from surrounding homes amid fears of a second bomb being hidden at the suburban property, which was still being searched last night.
Yesterday neighbours described the 18-year-old living there as a teenage tearaway and it was claimed that he had been spoken to by police many times.
The revelation sparked speculation that US President Donald Trump was right when he tweeted about the suspected bomber being ‘in the sights’ of Scotland Yard.
This caused a diplomatic row because Theresa May and police both condemned his ‘unhelpful’ intervention. Yesterday it emerged that Mr and Mrs Jones, who took the 18-year-old in after he arrived in Dover three years ago, were ‘at the end of their tether’ with the youngster after a series of run-ins with the authorities.
The carers have raised 268 foster children over three decades – including eight refugees. They were awarded MBEs by the Queen for their services to children and families. But friends said they had been unable to cope with the ‘problematic foster child’ who was said to be out of control. Questions were being asked yesterday about why he was placed with the Christian family after concerns from the 18year-old’s Muslim’s relatives.
One of their former foster children said the Joneses had taken on ‘difficult teenagers recently’ including an Iraqi refugee who fled Baghdad arriving in Dover three years ago and a Somalian boy, both of whom were placed with the couple from a refugee centre in Dover. Last night a close family friend said the foster parents, who are now staying with friends, were distraught at his arrest.
‘To say they are gutted is an understatement,’ the friend said.
‘For this to happen, after all the thousands of kids they have fostered and for it to ruin everything.
Aaron Nye, a former foster child of the couple, said: ‘It’s shocking. I really feel for the Penny and Ron.
‘At the end of their tether’
It’s dreadful for them and it has made me quite emotional – they never asked for any of this and they have been so good to so many kids.’
His mother, Tracy Nye, said the 18-year-old had been trouble for the couple. Neighbours on the quiet street said one of the teenagers living at the property had been arrested at Parsons Green station two weeks ago but was later returned home. Serena Barber, 47, said: ‘They have two boys at the moment, both are foreign. One is very quiet and polite, the other, who is 18, is awful.
‘I know about two weeks ago he was arrested by police at Parsons Green, for what I don’t know and returned back to Penny and Ron.
‘After that Penny said she was going to have to stop caring for him, she couldn’t handle him.’
Stephen Griffiths, 28, who lives across the road, said: ‘Police have been at this address a few times in the last couple of weeks. At the time we just put it down to it being foster kids that needed to be spoken to.
‘Why couldn’t something be done sooner to stop this happening? Why couldn’t the police have questioned him?
‘Three or four officers would turn up and would speak to the foster parents on the doorstep.’
Another neighbour Dave Solway said the refugee wanted to run away, while one mother of two said there had been clashes about placing the Muslim teenager, who spoke Arabic, with Christians.
She said: ‘I saw the boys, they were quiet. I asked the younger one if he wanted to come to my church to help settle in and meet people, he didn’t. His main family are Muslim, they are not happy he is with a Christian family.’