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UK braces for 7/7 anniversary
06/07/2007 19:06 - (SA)
London - Britain is on high alert ahead of the second anniversary of London's July 2005 suicide bombings on Saturday, a week after failed bombings which underlined the continuing terror threat.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday that detectives were "getting to the bottom" of a militant cell behind last week's failed attacks in London and Glasgow.
But while Britain has lowered its threat level from "critical" to "severe" after rounding up eight suspects, police remain on high alert and will be out in force for this weekend's start of the Tour de France cycle race in London.
Two years to the day after 52 people were killed by four suicide bombers on the London transport network, security will also be ratchet-tight around the final weekend of the Wimbledon tennis championship.
The probe into last week's London and Glasgow attacks has made rapid progress, with eight suspects held and further questioning and searches, both in Britain and Australia.
"From what I know, we are getting to the bottom of this cell that has been responsible for what has happened," Brown told BBC television, after speaking to Australian Prime Minister John Howard about the latest developments.
A stroke of fortune
"I want us to be able to work more closely with foreign authorities to deal with this security menace," he added.
Britain's latest terror threat began last Friday morning, when two Mercedes cars were abandoned in the heart of London's entertainment district, packed with gas canisters and nails.
By a stroke of fortune they failed to go off - reports suggest a faulty medical syringe in the detonating mechanism - but a day later two men rammed a blazing car into Glasgow airport's main terminal.
British authorities immediately raised the national threat level to its highest possible, meaning another attack was expected "imminently".
A series of arrests followed rapidly, as police used data retrieved from mobile phones found in the two Mercedes which if they had exploded could have killed hundreds of people.
Suspects are doctors
On Wednesday the threat level was lowered back to "severe".
Most of the suspects are thought to be either doctors or linked to the National Health Service.
A number are either related or knew each other, with several having spent time in the university town of Cambridge, according to media reports.
- AFP
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