A vehicle is removed from the scene where police defused a bomb in central London, June 29, 2007. (Stephen Hird/Reuters)
Posted on 06/29/2007 9:27:00 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
London faced a fresh terror alert tonight as police hunting the gang behind the nightclub bomb plot evacuated Hyde Park.
Fresh details emerged of how the gang - believed to be linked to al Qaeda - came within moments of causing carnage with a 'massive bomb' attack on a West End club.
Park Lane, on Hyde Park's eastern edge, is closed from Marble Arch to Hyde Park corner, with a 200-metre cordon around a suspicious vehicle in an underground car park. It is not known however if this vehicle also contains a bomb.
(Excerpt) Read more at thisislondon.co.uk ...
The examples did. But you see explosions from time to time in places where propane is stored and the heat is extreme, with the addition of dry conditions, a static charge.
So, the car this morning was “smoking.” The plan was to heat up the tanks and cause them to explode to create more damage.
I’m not familiar with that case.
Sheesh... I am still waiting to be enlightened by the Senate as to just exactly why we peons don’t really need a border fence...
When a container of gas explodes upon heating, the explosion to due to the increased pressure in the tank. So at the moment of rupture of the tank, the gas is not yet even burning.
I don’t disagree. However, (a) a gas cyclinder is easy to acquire, (b) the shrapnel from the cylinder was augmented with nails, etc.
Here is an example on YouTube of a can of propane which has been heated in a fire exploding.
Obviously, you have never been a firefighter and taken training for a BLEVE. A rupture and fire of a cylinder of propane usually will result a MAJOR explosive event. Believe me, having been on the hose nozzle crew in a Bleve training, you can toast marshmallows across the street from it.
If you don't believe me, check out this video or maybe this firefighter training video under controlled conditions.
Don't underestimate what that little LPG tank can do.
That’s my point. IMHO, they are here.
One of the other threads said the terrorist getting out of the Mercedes was “stumbling out”. I wonder if he opened the LP canisters and didn’t get out of there quick enough and was overcome a bit by the fumes.
This was probably planned weeks ago. Thus not related to the new British government.
Hitler could not break the British spirit; nor the IRA and certainly not these Jihadist pieces of scum.
British police find second car bomb
June 29, 2007 16:21 EDT
LONDON (AP) — Police in London confirm a second car bomb has been discovered in the city.
British anti-terror police chief Peter Clarke says the second car was originally parked in the same area as the first, but has been towed to an impound lot.
Clarke says the second vehicle contained “very similar materials” to those found in the first car. He says there was a “considerable” amount of fuel and gas canisters along with some nails.
He says the bomb was “potentially viable.”
The second bomb was discovered hours after authorities defused an explosive device in a car parked outside a busy nightclub.
http://www.kgan.com/template/inews_wire/wires.international/2a642f3b-www.kgan.com.shtml
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19495826/
The first car, which was parked under a blue awning near the popular Tiger Tiger nightclub, just 50 yards from Trafalgar Square, was jammed with gasoline and 18 to 20 boxes of roofing nails. Six to eight tanks of propane, intended to mix with the gasoline in a mist to make a fuel-air explosion, were inside and around the car, counterterrorism officials told NBC News.
Clarke told reporters that the second car was similarly laden with explosives and nails.
U.S. officials told NBC that the devices appeared designed to create a highly explosive bomb of the type that had been seen in Iraq but not, until now, in the West.
Islamist terrorist suspects convicted in recent London cases have spoken of moving up to more deadly fuel-air explosives, authorities said. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair said earlier this year that “vehicle-borne weaponry is the greatest danger that we can face.”
Explosives-Packed Cars Found in London
Jun 29, 4:36 PM EDT
By DAVID STRINGER
Associated Press Writer
LONDON (AP) — Police in London’s bustling nightclub and theater district on Friday defused a car bomb that could have killed hundreds after an ambulance crew spotted smoke coming from a Mercedes filled with a lethal mix of gasoline, propane and nails. Hours later, police confirmed a second explosives-rigged car was found nearby.
The first car bomb, found near Piccadilly Circus, was powerful enough to have caused “significant injury or loss of life” at a time when hundreds were in the area, British anti-terror police chief Peter Clarke said.
Clarke said Friday evening that the second car - another Mercedes - was originally parked illegally on nearby Cockspur Street, but had been towed from the West End to an impound lot near Hyde Park.
“The vehicle was found to contain very similar materials to those that had been found in the first car,” he said. “There was a considerable amount of fuel and gas canisters. As in the first vehicle, there was also a quantity of nails. This like the first device was potentially viable.”
The discoveries came just ahead of the second anniversary of the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings that killed 52 people on three London subways and a bus.
“We are currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorism,” Britain’s new home secretary, Jacqui Smith, said after an emergency meeting of top officials.
In Washington, two officials said British authorities found no link between the defused car bomb and any terrorist group during the early hours of the investigation. The officials, who were briefed on the inquiry, said the investigation had yielded no suspects and no definitive description of anyone leaving the vehicle. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
Police were examining footage from closed-circuit TV cameras, Clarke said, hoping the surveillance network that covers much of central London will help them track down the drivers of the cars.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee who was briefed on the investigation, said British authorities had recovered a cell phone that they believed was to be the trigger for the explosion.
“They found a cell phone and it was going to be used to detonate the bomb,” he said.
The events unfolded when an ambulance crew - responding to a call just before 1:30 a.m. about a person who had fallen at a Haymarket nightclub - noticed smoke coming from a car parked in front of the building, Clarke said.
The crew alerted police, and a bomb squad manually disabled the device, Clarke said.
Photographs of the metallic green Mercedes discovered first show a canister bearing the words “patio gas,” indicating it was propane, next to the car. The back door was open with blankets spilling out. The car was removed from the scene after a bomb squad disabled the explosives.
The Haymarket thoroughfare is packed with restaurants, bars, a cinema complex and West End theaters, and was buzzing at that hour. “Phantom of the Opera” is playing at Her Majesty’s Theater down the street.
It was ladies’ night Thursday, nicknamed “Sugar ‘N’ Spice,” at the Tiger Tiger nightclub, a three-story venue that at full capacity can pack in 1,770 people and stays open until 3 a.m.
Police also were investigating the possibility that the planned attack could have been criminal in nature. Authorities closed the Piccadilly Circus subway station for eight hours and cordoned off a 10-block area around the scene.
The incident triggered a series of security scares across central London, and police closed Park Lane, Fleet Street and nearby Chancery Lane to investigate other suspicious vehicles.
Gordon Brown, who only Wednesday succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister, called it a reminder that Britain faces a serious and continuous threat of terrorist attacks: “I will stress to the Cabinet that the vigilance must be maintained over the next few days.”
There had been no prior intelligence of planned attacks from the al-Qaida terror network, a British government official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.
Londoners were relatively unfazed by the news. People crowded onto buses and subway trains during the afternoon rush hour, shopping streets were busy and sidewalk cafes did brisk business.
“Sure, it’s disturbing, and obviously it reminds everyone of 7/7,” said Ian Hiskos, 32, eating at a cafe across the block from the police cordon on Haymarket. “I try not to think about these things.”
The terror threat level in Britain has remained at “severe” - meaning a terrorist attack is highly likely - since last August.
On Friday, Metropolitan Police said it sent more officers on the streets of central London. Authorities also stepped up security at Wimbledon.
One analyst said the bombers could be trying to send Britain’s new leader a message.
“It’s a way of testing Gordon Brown,” said Bob Ayers, a security expert at the Chatham House think tank. “It’s not too far-fetched to assume it was designed to expedite the decision on withdrawal (from Iraq).”
The U.S. government urged Americans abroad to be vigilant but officials said they saw no potential terrorist threat in the United States ahead of next week’s July 4 Independence Day holiday.
“At this time we are characterizing this as a localized incident in London,” said Laura Keehner, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security.
New York strengthened its already tight security as a precaution, putting additional police in Times Square and the mass transit system.
“We’re going to ramp up a little bit, but nothing dramatic,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show. “We’ll take a little bit of extra precaution. Some of you will notice, some of you won’t - but we have to be cognizant.”
http://www.columbian.com/news/world/APStories/AP06292007news160091.cfm
It translates as:
DRINK YOUR OVALTINE
You are welcome...
A vehicle is removed from the scene where police defused a bomb in central London, June 29, 2007. (Stephen Hird/Reuters)
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