By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal & Ahmed J Versi
LONDON (AA & The Muslim News): Detonation of an improvised Explosive Devise on a London Underground train on Friday morning is being treated as a terrorist incident, British police said. 18 people were injured, not seriously as the IED only partly blew up. A timing devise was attached to the bomb.
Pictures and video, purporting to be from the train carriage, were posted of flames coming out of a carrier bag containing a white bucket.
The Metropolitan Police said emergency services were called to Parsons Green station in west London at 8.20 a.m. local time (0720GMT) following reports of a fire on a commuter train.
A “number of people suffered injuries” in the blast, police said and counter-terrorist officers have declared it a terrorist incident. The London Ambulance Service said 18 people were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries and eyewitnesses told BBC News that victims suffered burns.
“It is too early to confirm the cause of the fire, which will be subject to the investigation that is now under way by the Met’s counter-terrorism command,” Neil Basu, the senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, said.
Online images showed a white bucket with wires protruding from it on fire inside a supermarket bag.
Prime Minister Theresa May will attend an emergency COBRA meeting later Friday.
“My thoughts are with those injured at Parsons Green and the emergency services who, once again, are responding swiftly and bravely to a suspected terrorist incident,” she said in a statement.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote on Facebook: “Our city utterly condemns the hideous individuals who attempt to use terror to harm us and destroy our way of life.
“As London has proven again and again, we will never be intimidated or defeated by terrorism.
“My sincere gratitude goes to all our courageous emergency responders and the TfL staff who were first on the scene.
“I urge all Londoners to remain calm and vigilant”.
He urged Londoners to “remain calm and vigilant”.
Eyewitness Richard Aylmer-Hall told the Press Association that some injuries were caused by the panic following the explosion.
He said: “I was blissfully reading my paper and listening to a podcast and suddenly the whole world charged past me down the platform, down the Tube.
“I was on the Tube, we had just stopped at Parsons Green, I was on my way up from Wimbledon towards Paddington and suddenly there was panic, lots of people shouting, screaming, lots of screaming.
“There was a woman on the platform who said she had seen a bag, a flash and a bang, so obviously something had gone off.
“It was an absolutely packed, rush-hour District Line train from Wimbledon to Edgware Road.
“I saw crying women, there was lots of shouting and screaming, there was a bit of a crush on the stairs going down to the streets.
“Some people got pushed over and trampled on, I saw two women being treated by ambulance crews.
“Since then, every emergency vehicle in London has gone past me, fire engines, ambulances, every type of police vehicle”
Katherine Manson tweeted: “To the man that pulled me out of the pile of people on the stairs during the stampede at Parsons Green – thank you. Thank you so much.”
Parson Green station and the roads around it were cordoned off and police advised people to avoid the area.
Footage from the scene also showed passengers being led off a train by police.
The ambulance service said it had sent a special hazardous area response team to the scene, amid reports of a white substance being found.
Britain has been on high alert following four terror attacks in London and Manchester this year which led to 36 deaths.
Officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command are investigating after an incident on a London tube train this morning.
[Photo: Firefighters arrive at Parsons Green Tube Station after an explosion in London, United Kingdom on September 15, 2017. Photograph by London Fire Brigade/Handout/AA]
