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Dramatic shoot-out in London
22/07/2005 11:49 - (SA)
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| A commuter reads the morning headlines onboard the Underground after the latest bomb attacks in London. (Sergio Dionisio, AP) |
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London - Police shot a man at an Underground station in south London on Friday, police said, amid reports that he was a would-be suicide bomber.
"We can confirm that just after 10:00 today armed officers shot a male at Stockwell Underground station," a spokesperson for London's Metropolitan Police said.
Sky News television reported that the man was a "suspected suicide bomber" and that passengers had been evacuated from trains at the station.
Stockwell is one stop south of Oval station, one of three Underground stops that were, together with a double-decker bus, the scenes of apparent would-be suicide attacks on Thursday.
Witnesses quoted by BBC and Sky News said the man who was shot appeared to have been of south Asian origin.
Chris Wells, who was a passenger evacuated from an Underground train at Stockwell, said he saw about 20 police officers, some armed, rushing into the station before a man jumped over the barriers with police giving chase.
"There were at least 20 of them (officers) and they were carrying big black guns," he said.
"The next thing I saw was this guy jump over the barriers and the police officers were chasing after him and everyone was just shouting, 'Get out, get out'."
British Transport Police said the Northern and Victoria Tube lines, which pass through Stockwell, were suspended because of shooting.
Passengers said that a man ran onto a train. They said police chased him, he tripped, then they shot him.
"They pushed him onto the floor and unloaded five shots into him. He's dead," witness Mark Whitby told the British Broadcasting Corporation "He looked like a cornered fox. He looked pertrified," said Whitby.
Whitby said it didn't look like the man was carrying anything but said he was wearing a thick coat that looked padded.
Christopher Scaglione said: "I was just on my way out when I heard at first a little bang - not like a bomb, more like a gun - and then people were shouting."
"People then started to run and I heard two or three more bangs like people shooting."
Thursday's failed attacks took place two weeks to the day after suicide bombers - three of them Britons of Pakistani origin - attacked three Underground trains and a double-decker bus, killing 56 and injuring some 700. - AFP/AP
- News24
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