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London: New evidence could produce breakthrough


Lachlan Carmichael, London / AFP
07/22/2005

A new but apparently botched bid to kill London commuters could bring a breakthrough in the probe into the deadly July 7 bombings after potentially vital evidence was left behind by the attackers, police said Thursday.

London police chief Ian Blair told reporters that it was too early to say for sure whether the two sets of attacks were carried out by the same group, though he acknowledged a certain "resonance" between them.

But police had obtained considerable forensic evidence from some of the four scenes where there were attacks, Blair, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, told a press conference.

"We do believe that this may represent a significant breakthrough in the sense that there is forensic material at these scenes," he said.

Three blasts, or attempted blasts, took place almost simultaneously at Thursday lunchtime on London Underground trains around the British capital. An hour later a fourth explosion was reported on a bus.

Attacks took place at Oval Underground station in south London, Warren Street station in central London, Shepherd's Bush station in the west and on a double-decker bus near Columbia Road in Shoreditch, east London.

Unlike the July 7 attacks that claimed the lives of 56 people and wounded 700 people, no one was injured.

"These are smaller devices, some of them have not gone off properly," said the head of London's police forces. British authorities suspect the earlier attacks were carried out by Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

"We have visited all the scenes and we have recovered quite a lot of material, which is very helpful to us," said police chief Blair, no relation to British prime minister Tony Blair.

Though nobody was killed in the latest attacks, "clearly the intention must have been to kill. You don't do this with any other intention," he said.
"I think the important point is that the intention of the terrorists has not been fulfilled."

Police took no chances by sending officers in protective clothing to at least two of the scenes, although no hazardous substances were found.

"We have tested for CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear agents) and there is nothing of that nature," Blair said, noting that there were similarities between Thursday's attacks and those a fortnight before.

"In one way it would appear to be a repetition of two weeks ago," he said.
However, he added, "I don't think I am in a position to say that it is connected. I think that will take a little time.

"There is a resonance here, I mean these are four attacks, there were four attacks before," he said.