Police investigating this week's failed bombings said yesterday they had arrested a second man in a south London neighborhood close to the scene of one of the attacks and where officers shot another suspect dead in a subway train.
Thousands of officers conducted a huge manhunt amid hopes the publication of images of four suspected attackers would lead to their capture.
Security alerts kept the city of about 8 million on edge. Police briefly evacuated east London's Mile End subway station in one such incident and one witness reported the smell of something burning. Service was suspended on parts of two subway lines. Police said later that the incident "turned out to be nothing."
Earlier, the Metropolitan Police said the second arrest late Friday was "in connection with our inquiries" into Thursday's attacks. The first suspect, whose identity has also not been released, was being questioned at a high-security London police station.
The force said it had had a good response to Friday's release of the photos, which were captured on closed-circuit surveillance cameras. Police said their anti-terrorist hotline had received more than 400 calls since Friday's appeal.
Authorities gave few details about the arrests, made under anti-terrorism legislation Friday in the Stockwell area of south London, where another man was shot dead by plainclothes officers in front of stunned subway commuters. Stockwell is near Oval station, the scene of one of Thursday's bungled bombings.
The men can be held for up to 14 days before they must be charged or released under the anti-terrorism legislation.
Friday was a day that jangled London's jittery nerves, with repeated security alerts on the transport system and armed raids on several properties.
Police would not say whether either the man killed or the men they arrested were among the four suspected of carrying bombs onto three subway trains and a bus on Thursday. Media reported widely that the man who was shot was not one of the bombers.
The bombs, which contained homemade explosives, failed to detonate properly and no one was injured, which echoed the much deadlier blasts two weeks earlier that killed 52 people and four suspected bombers.
Police commissioner Sir Ian Blair said that dealing with the threat posed by the bombers was "the greatest operational challenge ever faced by the Metropolitan Police Service."
He said the service, which for years had to deal with terror campaigns waged by the Irish Republican Army, was now "facing previously unknown threats and great danger."
The startlingly clear closed-circuit TV images of the suspects stared from the front pages of British newspapers yesterday. "Faces of the four bombers," said the Daily Telegraph. "The Fugitives" said the Times, while the Daily Mail labeled them "Human Bombs."
One image shows a stocky man in a "NEW YORK" sweat shirt running through a station. Another depicts a man in a white baseball cap and a T-shirt adorned with palm trees. Two others are in dark clothes, slightly obscured by a poor camera angle.
Authorities released the images Friday as snipers and bomb squads fanned out across the nervous city.
Heavily armed officers patrolled the British capital with clear instructions to stop suicide bombers -- if necessary, with a shot to the head.
"If you are dealing with someone who might be a suicide bomber, if they remain conscious, they could trigger plastic explosives or whatever device is on them," said Mayor Ken Livingstone. "Therefore, overwhelmingly in these circumstances, it is going to be a shoot-to-kill policy."
Muslims have voiced renewed concerns about a backlash. One of London's largest mosques was briefly evacuated after a bomb threat, and more than 100 "revenge attacks" have been reported.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RSS