'Police Shot Bombers' Reports New Zealander (Suicide Bombers Thwarted -- GOOD SHOOTING, BOYS!)

New Zealand Herald ^ | 7/09/2005 | staff

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

A New Zealander working for Reuters in London says two colleagues witnessed the unconfirmed shooting by police of two apparent suicide bombers outside the HSBC tower at Canary Wharf in London.

The New Zealander, who did not want to be named, said the killing of the two men wearing bombs happened at 10.30am on Thursday (London time).

Following the shooting, the 8000 workers in the 44-storey tower were told to stay away from windows and remain in the building for at least six hours, the New Zealand man said.

He was not prepared to give the names of his two English colleagues, who he said witnessed the shooting from a building across the road from the tower.

Reports of attacks carried out by suicide bombers have been rife in London.

Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper reported an unconfirmed incident of police shooting a bomber outside the HSBC tower.

Canadian Brendan Spinks, who works on the 18th floor of the tower, said he saw a "massive rush of policemen" outside the building after London was rocked by the bombings.

[alnitak]

Sounds like a BS friend-of-a-friend story to me. Do you really think Reuters would sit on it?

[Crazieman]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, suicide bombers in New Zealand?

[jayhorn]

Two Muslim suicide bombers dead, no innocents killed or wounded. All in all, not a bad shift for the Kiwis. Hand 'em some medals and hoist 'em some brews.

[tomkat]

It would be nice to believe this were true, but several things don't quite tally...

[leadpenny]

I'm suspicious because it's 48 hours after the attack and there were 8000 people in the building next to the alleged incident. The London tabloids would not have kept this quiet for so long.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Do you really think Reuters would sit on it?

Do I believe Reuters would actually "sit" on a story giving Islam an (additional) black eye, PR-wise?

Is this a trick question, of some sort...? :)

[jocon307]

"Do you really think Reuters would sit on it?"

Never, not for five minutes.

[FreePaul]

...witnessed the unconfirmed shooting...

Confusing statement? So are London police officers now armed? Hardly seems fair when no one else is armed. They may have to rethink that.

[endthematrix]

"A rumor began to circulate that there had been an attempted suicide bombing of the Bank of America building in Canary Wharf but the bomber had been shot by police before detonating."


This was from Dan Turner a Canadian living in London writing about the London attack. He was on the tube.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050708.wsayy0708/BNStory/Front/

[endthematrix]

"And the biggest story going round the City of London after the attacks on Thursday morning (but not officially confirmed by the police) was that marksmen had shot and killed a potential bomber in the vicinity of Canary Wharf."

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=July2005&file=Local_News20050709388.xml

[flaglady47]

Well, all the people who were allegedly told to stay in the building would know if this is true or not. They were either asked by the police to not leave the building or the weren't. Should be reasonably easy to confirm this rumour or not.

[gridlock]

If these martyrs were gunned down without actually slaughtering any of the infidel, do they still get their 72 virgins? Maybe they can get 36 each, because they really tried!

[naturalman1975]

While I doubt the story...

While most police officers in London are not armed, there are certainly armed officers fulfilling roles similar to those filled by SWAT Teams in US police forces.

These are referred to as SO19 Officers and are members of the Police Firearms Unit.

A significant number of other officers, including many detectives, are firearms trained and while they are not routinely armed, do carry firearms under special circumstances.

[Straight Vermonter]

[R. Scott]

If these martyrs were gunned down without actually slaughtering any of the infidel, do they still get their 72 virgins?

Nope – they get sent to 72 Virginians.

[cokecan]

sadly the chances of 8,000 people not speaking to the press about the shooting of two potential suicide bombers on the same day 50 people were sluaghtered a few miles away is about zero.

therefore its probably safe to say that the shootings did not take place. arrests may have taken place, though i'm sure the police would have said so by now.

police officers in london are generally not armed. all officers recieve firearms training and firearms are available for 'general use', however some police officers - those from the diplomatic and royal protection groups, the special branch, anti-terrorist branch and the 'flying squad' are armed as part of their normal duties. armed incidents in the UK are attended by specialist firearms teams who volunteer for such duties and are trained to a particularly high standard. they are based locally and arrive at the same time as unarmed police officers.

[papertyger]

If these martyrs were gunned down without actually slaughtering any of the infidel, do they still get their 72 virgins? Maybe they can get 36 each, because they really tried!

Nope, blowing the op means they become one of the virgins.