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发表于 2005-7-21 22:13
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London on major alert over feared copycat attacks
By Philippe Naughton, Times Online
picture from AP
Exactly two weeks after four suicide bombers wreaked havoc in the London rush hour, the capital was again brought to a standstill today by a spate of apparent copycat attacks on three Tube trains and a London bus.
Emergency services were called out to incidents at three stations, including a reported nailbomb attack at Warren Street station where one person was said to have been injured.
A British Transport Police spokeswoman said Warren Street, Shepherd\'s Bush and Oval stations had all been evacuated. An explosion was also reported on a No 26 bus at Hackney in East London, blowing out the windows but not causing any injuries.
Large parts of London were cordoned off after the bombs, including University College Hospital, near Warren Street, where armed police reportedly chased a man - thought to be the bomber - into the building.
Tony Blair cancelled his afternoon appointments on news of the incidents, although Scotland Yard said it was not immediately treating the incidents as of the same magnitude as the bombings on July 7.
Appearing outside New Scotland Yard, Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said the incidents were \"clearly very serious\" involving \"four explosions - four attempts at explosions\".
He added: \"At the moment the casualty numbers appear to be very low in the explosions, the bombs appear to be smaller than on the last occasions, but we don\'t know the implications of this yet and we\'ll have to examine the scene very closely.\"
The incidents came two weeks to the day after four suicide bombers blew themselves up on three Tube trains and a London bus, killing 52 travellers and four bombers in a co-ordinated attack blamed on the al-Qaeda network. Sir Ian appealed to Londoners to stay off the transport system but to go about their normal business.
\"It looks like it may be people messing around, copycat-type stuff,\" Dr Shane Brighton, a terrorism expert at the Royal United Services Institute. \"The absence of any clear evidence of substantial blasts means that this is on the face of it at the moment not a follow-up attack of the same proportion.\"
Dr Brighton added: \"It may be an attempt by people to cause panic, maybe people with similar ideas or ideological sympathy with the people that did the recent bombings...The nature of the incidents doesn’t appear to be anything like as serious.\"
Like July 7, three Tube stations and a bus appeared to be involved, and as on July 7 the targets appeared to describe a rough cross-shape on the map of London, with Warren St in the north, Oval in the south, Hackney in the east and Shepherd\'s Bush in the west.
A British Transport Police spokesman said: \"One person has received an injury at Warren Street. We cannot confirm what the injury is, how it was received or who serious it is. We are still waiting for more information.\"
Victoria Line passenger Ivan McCracken claimed a traveller’s rucksack had exploded on the Tube as it approached Warren Street station, which is just a few hundred yards from King\'s Cross station.
He told Sky News: \"I was in a middle carriage and the train was not far short of Warren Street station when suddenly the door between my carriage and the next one burst open and dozens of people started rushing through.
[ Last edited by 灰鸦 on 2005-7-21 at 22:19 ] |
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