Bombs were 'manually activated'

2005-08-24 20:28

London - The bombs used in the July 7 attacks in London that killed 56 people were triggered by "manually activated" button-like devices, the Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday, quoting senior police sources.

It said the breakthrough in London's biggest terrorist investigation scotches the theory that the four apparent suicide bombers had been duped into carrying rucksacks full of explosives onto three Underground subway trains and a double-decker bus.

"They were manually activated. There were no mobile timers on (July) the seventh," one source was quoted as saying, referring to speculation that alarm clocks in mobile phones might have set off the bombs.

Manually activated bombs

The rucksack bombs that failed to go off in an attempted copycat attack on July 21, in which no one was hurt, were also "manually activated", the newspaper said in a front-page report.

Three prime suspects in the would-be attack have been charged with attempted murder, conspiracy and possession of explosives, while a fourth is awaiting extradition from Italy.

It remains unclear how the button-like devices operated, The Guardian said.

"It could have been a positive push switch, where you push it and the bomb explodes, or a dead man's switch where you put it in and it won't go off until you release it," said former anti-terrorist bomb expert Tony Dedman.

Police have previously said the July 7 bombs on the Underground went off almost simultaneously during morning rush-hour, while the one on the double-decker bus detonated about an hour later.

Scandal overshadowing investigation

The investigation into the bombings has been overshadowed since last week by the scandal enveloping the police killing on July 22 of a Brazilian man who was mistakenly suspected of being a suicide bomber.

Over the past week it has emerged that, contrary to initial claims by police and witnesses, Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was not behaving unusually before he was shot eight times by armed police in a south London subway station.

His killing brought to light a secret "shoot to kill" policy for dealing with suspected suicide bombers that now is being reviewed in light of the accidental shooting.

While the De Menezes family wants a public inquiry, metropolitan police chief Ian Blair is rejecting calls to resign. An independent agency is looking into the shooting, and is expected to report by the end of the year.

The Guardian said police are still holding the bodies of the four who carried out the July 7 attacks - Shehzad Tanweer, Mohammad Siddique Khan, Hasib Hussain and Jermaine Lindsay.

The aim is to, as near as possible, reassemble their body parts to determine what their exact positions were when the bombs went off, the newspaper quoted a police source as saying.

- AFP