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Europe comes to a standstill
14/07/2005 13:45 - (SA)
London - People across Europe paused for two minutes of silence on Thursday to honour the victims of last week's London terror attacks.
As Big Ben chimed at noon, tourists and Londoners alike stopped on the sidewalks outside the Houses of Parliament and bowed their heads.
In Paris, sirens wailed across the city and French President Jacques Chirac and visiting Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula de Silva stood at attention outside the Elysee Palace.
Hundreds of European Union officials gathered in the sunlight outside EU headquarters in Brussels. EU flags flew at half-staff.
Earlier, at an Italian mountain retreat in Les Combes, Pope Benedict XVI also prayed for the victims.
Focus on lecturer
Meanwhile, British investigators carried out on Thursday a forensic examination at a non-descript house in Aylesbury, northwest of London, that may yield more clues into the London bombings and the men behind it.
Following Tuesday's raids on six homes in the northern English city of Leeds, anti-terrorist police swooped late on Wednesday on the house.
Aylesbury lies around 30km from Luton where the four suspected bombers are believed to have boarded a train on their way to the capital last Thursday.
Police say that three of the bombers came from Leeds, and that they joined a fourth accomplice in Luton before heading to London to carry out the deadly attacks.
It is thought the house in Northern Road in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, may be connected to one of the cars recovered by police at Luton railway station.
Niknam Hussain, a local councillor, said he understood from police that the property was occupied by a man who had "connections with a car in Luton".
However, no arrests were made and no explosive substances are believed to have been found at the property. Neighbour Nicholas Doe said the raid centred on a small block of commercial premises near his house which included a taxi firm and a hairdresser.
The neighbourhood was "generally quiet", comprising mainly small terraced houses, and had a large Asian presence.
British newspapers have said the suicide bombers were all Britons of Pakistani origin who lived in and around Leeds. All are thought to have died in the blasts.
Media have identified three of them as Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Mohammed Sadique Khan, 30, and Hasib Mir Hussain, 18. The fourth suspected suicide bomber has not been named. According to the Times, police were also urgently trying to find an Egyptian-born chemistry lecturer who taught until recently at Leeds University.
The paper identified him as M Asdi el-Nashar, 33, and said he was understood to have rented one of the Leeds addresses where explosives were found.
The Guardian meanwhile quoted a senior security source as saying the hunt could involve more people than at first thought. - AP/AFP
- News24
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