Two Explosive-Laden Cars in London Linked

Story Highlights
• NEW: Anti-terror chief: "These vehicles are clearly linked"
• Two vehicles loaded with fuel and nails safely removed
• Police hunt driver who abandoned explosives-packed car outside nightclub
• Bomb could have resulted in serious loss of life, anti-terror chief says

CNN reports:

As authorities were investigating an explosives-packed car discovered outside a nightclub near Piccadilly Circus on Friday, a second vehicle was found in London that had similar explosive material inside, security sources said.

Both cars were laden with large amounts of fuel, gas canisters and "a substantial quantity of nails," British police anti-terror chief Peter Clarke said.

"These vehicles are clearly linked," he said.

The second car had been parked underground near Trafalgar Square in an area where parking was not allowed.

Workers towed it to a lot on Park Lane near Buckingham Palace and thought it smelled of gasoline. Given the reports that gas canisters were among the explosive material found in the other car, they became suspicious, security sources said.

Authorities then blocked off a section of Park Lane while they examined the car and discovered the material.

Earlier Friday, a section of Fleet Street also was cordoned off briefly, then reopened without incident.

Inside the first car near Piccadilly Circus, a device was found loaded with fuel, gas cylinders and nails, said security sources, and it was set up for remote detonation.

Security sources said the "relatively crude device" contained at least 200 liters, or about 50 gallons, of fuel in canisters.

Police said the car was found shortly before 2 a.m. Friday and deactivated. The device could have caused huge numbers of casualties, police said.

Clarke said detectives were examining security camera footage for clues to the driver of the vehicle.

The incident renewed fears of a terrorist strike almost two years after London's transport network was hit by suicide bombers.

Security sources with knowledge of the investigation said a cell phone was found as part of the first device, but it was not immediately clear whether it was to be used as a detonator or timer, or in some other way.

Clarke said the car was discovered when a quick-thinking ambulance crew noticed it was filled with smoke outside the popular Tiger Tiger nightclub.

Explosives officers discovered the fuel and nails attached to a "potential means of detonation" inside the vehicle. Officers "courageously" disabled the trigger by hand, Clarke said.

"Even at this stage it is obvious that if the device had detonated, there could have been severe injuries and loss of life," Clarke said. He said it was too early to say who was responsible.

Witness Daniel Weir said he was walking home from work when he noticed police had cordoned off the area around the nightclub and a nearby vehicle.

He snapped several photos, including one that showed a canister labeled "patio gas." (See the photos)

"If I had known what was actually ... going on, I don't think I would have been hanging about," he told CNN hours later.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, appointed two days earlier in a transition of power seen as a potential spur for extremists to mount an attack, said the incident was a reminder of the dangers facing the country. (Full story)

Brown, whose predecessor Tony Blair's support of the Iraq war provoked anger among Islamic militants, said Britain faced "a serious and continuous threat" and the public needs to be alert at all times.

The incident came a little more than a week before the second anniversary of July 7, 2005, when four Islamic extremist suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured hundreds more on London's transport system in the deadliest strike on the city since World War II.

'Rude awakening'

CNN international security correspondent Paula Newton said the Piccadilly Circus bomb was potentially aimed at theatergoers or nightclubbers, echoing plots recently thwarted by anti-terror police in which Islamic militants intended to attack prominent dance venues and shopping malls.

London has a long history of bomb attacks and alerts during decades of violence mounted by Northern Irish guerrilla groups. Lone attackers also have previously targeted the city's gay and immigrant communities. (Timeline of attacks)

Friday's incident could prove to be the first major test for Brown, a former finance minister, who has only just appointed his Cabinet, including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, in charge of domestic security.

"For Gordon Brown, it is a rude awakening to the realities you take on as prime minister," CNN's European political editor Robin Oakley said.

Smith on Friday attended a meeting of Britain's so-called Cobra emergency committee -- consisting of intelligence and security chiefs -- and later briefed Brown's Cabinet.

"As the police and security services have frequently said, we face one of the most serious and sustained threats to our security at the moment," Smith told reporters.

Police later said they were deploying an enhanced presence to provide extra security across the capital, but said the reinforcements were not in response to a specific incident.

Reports Circulate About Second Suspicious Vehicle in London

USA Today On Deadline reports:

As London reels from this morning's discovery of a car bomb in the theater district, CNN is quoting anonymous police and security sources who say similar components were found in a vehicle that parking enforcement towed from Trafalgar Square to an underground parking garage near Hyde Park.

ITN says officials won't confirm reports that explosives were found in the second car. But CNN quotes "a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the London investigation" saying "the car was linked to the vehicle outside the club, and that some materials found inside the car were very similar to explosive materials found in the car near Piccadilly Circus."

Sky News reports that the second vehicle, described as a blue hybrid Mercedes, was parked illegally on the West End and towed to the Park Lane impound lot early this morning. "Staff at the pound became suspicious and alerted police because they said 'it smelled of gas,'" the network says. "Forensic officers and bomb disposal teams spent several hours examining the car, however Park Lane has now re-opened."

An international manhunt is underway, with counter-terrorism investigators said to looking for the person who seen leaving the first vehicle outside a nightclub early this morning.

Update at 3:30 p.m. ET: CBS News focused this afternoon on reports that someone posted information about a bombing in London to the Internet long before police found the car near Piccadilly Circus. "Today I say: Rejoice, by Allah, London shall be bombed," the person wrote Thursday night on a jihadist forum, according to the network.

ABC News has an urgent alert in bright red letters splashed across the top of its website: SEVERAL EXPLOSIONS WERE PLANNED USING MULTIPLE VEHICLES BY ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS IN LONDON BOMB PLOT, U.S. AND BRITISH OFFICIALS TELL ABC NEWS.

That may be true, but so far there's little evidence in the network's story to back up the claims in its headline. Here's the first sentence: "British and U.S. officials have become increasingly convinced that two cars found in London and laden with explosives are part of a 'terror plot involving Islamic extremists,' according to ABC News's Brian Ross."

That's the only part of the story that addresses the claims in the headline and the breaking-news alert.

Judging by the chatter on the all-news channels, many experts believe that Islamic extremists were in fact responsible for the car bomb that police discovered early this morning outside a London nightclub. But we have yet to see any confirmation of these claims from named sources, and some reports have been careful to note the possibility that the car bomb was tied to criminals instead of terrorists.

As for the second vehicle, there are conflicting reports as to whether or not it contained bomb-related materials. Several major news organizations are quoting unidentified officials who say the car contained explosives or bomb-making components. But Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., tells MSNBC that his briefings suggest that further investigation showed that the vehicle wasn't a threat.

Update at 3:57 p.m. ET: British police just held a very short press conference during which they confirmed that the two cars were linked. "This second vehicle has been examined ... the vehicle was found to contain very similar materials to those that had been found in the first car in Haymarket earlier today," Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke says. "There was a considerable amount of fuel and gas canisters. As in the first vehicle, there was also a substantial quantity of nails."

Clarke, head of the counter-terror squad, says the bomb squad disabled both devices.

"These vehicles are clearly linked," he says. Clarke didn't take any questions.

Explosives-Packed Car Defused in London

Forbes.com reports:

Police in London's bustling nightclub and theater district on Friday defused a 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, authorities said.

The bomb near Piccadilly Circus was powerful enough to have caused "significant injury or loss of life" - possibly killing hundreds, British anti-terror police chief Peter Clarke said.

The discovery resurrected fears that followed the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings that killed 52 people on three London subways and a bus and failed attacks on the transit system just two weeks later.

"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.

But in Washington, two U.S. officials briefed on the investigation said British authorities had so far found no terrorist link in the early hours of the investigation. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said the inquiry had yielded no suspects and no definitive description of anyone leaving the vehicle.

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 driver of the Mercedes.

U.S. Rep. Peter King, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said British authorities saw a man fiddling with a cell phone near the Mercedes.

"They found a cell phone and it was going to be used to detonate the bomb," said King, R-N.Y.

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 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.

Hours after the discovery, police closed a major road on the edge of Hyde Park to investigate a suspicious vehicle. Sky News and the British Broadcasting Corp. reported that the vehicle was linked to the foiled plot, although a police spokeswoman denied any connection had been established.

The busy 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.

A British security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the security details, said there were similarities between the device and vehicle bombs used by insurgents in Iraq. But the two officials in Washington said it was too early in the investigation to tell if those similarities were significant.

The British security official also said the domestic spy agency MI5 would examine possible connections between Friday's bomb attempt and at least two similar foiled plots - to attack a London nightclub in 2004 and to pack limousines in New York with gas canisters and shrapnel.

In the 2004 plot, accused members of an al-Qaida-linked terror cell were convicted of conspiring to cause explosions. One of the possible targets M15 overheard them discussing was the Ministry of Sound, one of London's biggest and most famous nightclubs.

One man is heard saying the plan was to "Blow the whole thing up."

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."