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UK: Fifth bomber on the run?
25/07/2005 21:31 - (SA)
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| An undated picture of Muktar Said Ibraihim, who detectives have named as the man they wish to trace in connection with last Thursday's attempted suicide bombing on a London bus. (AP Photo/Metropolitan Police, HO) |
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London - London police on Monday named two of four men believed responsible for last week's botched transit bombings and arrested two new suspects - bringing the number of people detained so far to five.
Detectives confirmed that a bomb found abandoned in a park was similar to those used in the attacks, raising fears a fifth bomber was also on the run. The four men thought responsible for the failed attacks have not been caught.
London's police chief said the force was "racing against time" to find the bombers, who fled three subway trains and a bus when their devices failed to detonate.
Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan police anti-terrorist squad, identified two of the suspects as Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, and 27-year-old Muktar Said Ibrahim, also known as Muktar Mohammed Said. New CCTV pics
Police released new closed-circuit images of the suspects and gave details of their alleged movements, recounting how one bolted from a subway station pursued by passengers, while another jumped through a subway window and fled down the tracks.
Armed officers raided a London apartment which Said - suspected of trying to bomb a bus in east London last Thursday - is believed to have visited recently. Forensic officers in white overalls searched the a flat in Curtis House, a concrete high-rise in the city's northern suburbs.
Resident Sammy Jones, 33, said she thought she recognised a man who visited the building as Said.
She said he had stayed with an African man named George, who lived in a ninth-floor apartment.
She said a few weeks earlier she had seen George and the man she thought was Said filling up an elevator inside the building with small brown cardboard boxes. When she asked what was in them, they replied "wallpaper stripper".
The Metropolitan police said they had arrested two people on suspicion of terrorism in the area, but not at the raided address. Three other suspects are already being questioned at a high-security London police station "on suspicion of the commission, instigation or preparation of acts of terrorism" in connection with the attacks. Containers
On Sunday, police destroyed a package found in bushes in a west London park not far from the scene of the attempted bombing at Shepherd's Bush station. Clarke said forensic examination had showed "clear similarities" between the device and the bombs found on three subway trains and a bus last Thursday.
"All five of these bombs had been put into dark-coloured bags or rucksacks. All five were made using the same type of plastic food storage container," Clarke said. He appealed for shopkeepers who stocked the 6.25l clear plastic containers to contact police if they had sold five or more of the containers.
No one was hurt in last Thursday's attacks, which came two weeks after similar bombings that killed 52 people and four suspected suicide bombers on three subway trains and a bus.
Police have indicated al-Qaeda-linked terrorists were involved in both the July 7 and July 21 attacks.
- AP
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