London Blasts Cause Chaos on Tube
21/07/2005| IslamWeb
London's Tube network has been plunged into chaos with stations cleared after minor blasts on two trains and a bus.
Met Police chief Sir Ian Blair said three Tube lines were suspended but it was time London returned to normal.
The minor explosions - two weeks after blasts killed 56 - involved detonators only, a BBC reporter said. There was one injury.
Police sources say the blasts may have been near simultaneous and that they are being linked with the 7 July bombs.
They say a number of fugitives are being sought. Two people have been arrested in Whitehall.
Detectives are recovering a lot of evidence from the sites, and believe the latest events may either be a repetition of the 7 July attacks or may help with a breakthrough in the investigation.
Eyewitnesses heard bangs and saw abandoned rucksacks at the sites of the incidents at Warren Street and Oval tube stations as well as the number 26 bus in Bethnal Green.
There was an attempt to cause an explosion at Shepherd's Bush Hammersmith and City line, police said.
At Warren Street and Oval a man was seen running away from the scene.
On the bus, there were no injuries and the bus suffered no structural damage.
Large areas around all four sites were cordoned off. Tests for chemical, biological and radiological weapons proved negative.
One person was injured at Warren Street. There were reports the injured person may have been holding a rucksack containing the detonator.
Sir Ian appealed for witnesses with mobile phone pictures of any of the incidents to visit the www.police.uk website.
And he said it was "time to get London moving" again.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "We can't minimise incidents such as this because they obviously have been serious in the four different places as we know.
"I think all I'd like to say is this that we know why these things are done, they're done to scare people and to frighten them, to make them anxious and worried."
The BBC's Andrew Winstanley said devices had been found but appeared to have been dummies, containing no explosives.
Police said armed officers were deployed to University College Hospital after an incident. A large area was cordoned off.
The hospital has not received any casualties or been alerted to casualties.
The whole of the Northern Line has been suspended, along with the Victoria Line and the Hammersmith and City line.
A number of other stations were closed during the alert, including Great Portland Street, Westminster, Waterloo, St Paul's and Oxford Circus tube stations, as well as Waterloo tube station and King's Cross Thameslink.
Tony Blair cancelled events in the afternoon and attended a meeting of the Cobra committee along with Sir Ian. Whitehall was briefly closed down.
London Underground went to an amber alert with trains taken to the next station and evacuated.
An eyewitness at Oval station said there had been a small bang, and a man had then run off when the Tube reached the station.
A spokesman for Stagecoach said the driver of the number 26 bus travelling through Bethnal Green had heard a bang on upper deck.
The bus driver was very shaken but said to be fine.
At Shepherd's Bush Hammersmith and City line station, police told reporters that a man had threatened to blow himself up and then ran off.
Sosiane Mohellavi, 35, was travelling from Oxford Circus to Walthamstow when she was evacuated from a train at Warren Street.
"I was in the carriage and we smelt smoke - it was like something was burning. "Everyone was panicked and people were screaming. We had to pull the alarm. I am still shaking."
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