British police yesterday thwarted an apparent terror attack in central London, discovering a parked silver Mercedes that was packed with gas containers and a large number of nails and a detonator.
The attack would have caused "significant injury or loss of life," police said.
A British security official told reporters that there were similarities between the device and vehicle bombs used by insurgents in Iraq.
"Forensic staff are still examining the device, but once we know more about it, we'll know more about what type of individuals are behind this," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the security details.
Bomb squad officers defused the bomb after police received reports of a suspicious vehicle in the early hours close to the Tiger Tiger nightclub in the heart of London's West End.
The explosives -- safely defused by a bomb squad -- were powerful enough to have caused "significant injury or loss of life" -- possibly killing hundreds, British anti-terror police chief Peter Clarke said.
He said it was too early to speculate about who was involved and he called on the public to remain vigilant.
Clarke said police would examine footage from closed-circuit TV cameras in the area.
The security official who spoke anonymously said Britain's domestic spy agency MI5 also would examine possible connections between yesterday's incident and at least two similar foiled plots -- including a planned attack on a West End nightclub in 2004 and a thwarted attempt to use limousines packed with gas canisters to attack targets in London and New York.
Officers were called to the Haymarket area near Piccadilly Circus shortly before 2am, a police statement said. Sky News cited witnesses as saying doormen from a nearby nightclub had reported that someone had crashed a Mercedes sedan into garbage bins and had run away.
A suspicious vehicle found near London's Hyde Park was connected to the car bomb defused earlier by British police, Sky News TV reported yesterday.
Police closed Park Lane, on Hyde Park's eastern side, to investigate the suspicious vehicle and set up a 200m cordon around the car.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced a baptism of fire yesterday in the wake of the bomb's discovery.
The 56-year-old only took over from Tony Blair on Wednesday and had been preparing to meet senior ministers in Downing Street for a special meeting to discuss plans to overhaul the way government operates.
As news of the foiled attack broke, Brown, on a visit to a north London school, was forced to respond and said the incident showed that Britain was facing a "serious and continuous" security threat.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith -- in her first day of the job -- had to chair a meeting of the "COBRA" emergency response committee, previously convened after events like the London suicide bombings two years ago.
A subsequent meeting of the new ministerial team, which Brown only appointed on Thursday, ran well over time.
Brown said the incident was a reminder that Britain faces "a serious and continuous threat" and the "need to be alert."
"I will stress to the Cabinet that the vigilance must be maintained over the next few days," Brown said.
The bomb was discovered just over a week before the second anniversary of the July 7 public transport bombings.
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