Vikram Dodd, Mark Tran, Hugh Muir and Sandra LavilleFriday June 29, 2007Guardian Unlimited The junction of Coventry Street and Haymarket in central London is cordoned off as police officers investigate a 'viable explosive device'. Photograph: Clara Molden/PA Senior police and Whitehall sources today said the failed attempt to inflict mass murder in central London was the work of al-Qaida or those inspired by its ideology.
One senior source said: "You only have to read past cases of those convicted for terrorism to realise they have been plotting to blow up nightclubs and putting gas cylinder bombs in cars."
The device was described by counter-terrorism sources as similar to car bombs used in Iraq.
The Tiger Tiger club in Haymarket, near Piccadilly Circus, had hundreds of people inside, and more were milling around on the street. The security services and police have been trying to boost the intelligence they have about violent extremists. But this attempted attack was "off the radar".
Scotland Yard's head of counter-terrorism, Peter Clarke said: "There is no intelligence whatsoever that we were going to be attacked in this way." Britain's threat level remained at "severe general", with sources saying there was no specific intelligence of more attacks to come.
Hours after police defused the device, part of London's Park Lane was closed to traffic, and nearby Hyde Park was being cleared of people after reports of a suspicious vehicle. The police has also increased its presence in the capital. "At this stage we are deploying an enhanced level of patrolling in key areas in central London and across the capital," a police statement said. "This is to provide a visible reassurance, and is not in response to any specific threat." The more visible police presence followed this morning's incident, when a bomb made from gas cylinders, petrol and nails was found in a car in Haymarket, one of the capital's main nightlife districts.
Police said the device could have killed or injured many people. At a news conference, Mr Clarke said the device could have proved deadly.
"Even at this stage, it is obvious that if the device had detonated there could have been seriou injury or loss of life," he said. "It was busy, and many people were leaving nightclubs." Mr Clarke said police had gathered CCTV evidence, but it was too early to speculate about who was responsible. The incident began when an ambulance was called to a nightclub around 1am to treat a person who had fallen ill. The ambulance crew noticed a Mercedes parked outside the club, and saw that the vehicle appeared to have smoke inside it.
Mr Clarke said experts called to the scene found "significant quantities of petrol, together with a number of gas cylinders ... I cannot tell you how much petrol was in the car as we have not had a chance to measure it, but there were several large containers." Witnesses said they had seen the light metallic green saloon car being driven erratically earlier. It then crashed into bins before the driver ran away. Police are searching landmark sites across London for further devices, and are unsure whether there was only one bomb or several deployed across the capital. No warnings were received and the foiling of the plot was sheer happenstance. The car was later loaded on to a lorry and taken away. It would most likely have been taken to the forensic explosives laboratory at Fort Halstead in Kent, the site of a specialist facility known as the Igloo.
The security scare poses an early test for the new prime minister, Gordon Brown, and his home secretary. Cobra, the government's emergency response committee, met this morning to discuss the situation.
Amid speculation that the bomb had been timed to coincide with the changeover of government, Mr Brown said the alert underlined the continuing threat to Britain. "The first duty of the government is the security of the people, and as the police and security services have said on so many occasions, we face a serious and continuous threat to our country," he said during a visit to a school in north London. "We should allow the police to investigate this incident and then report to us. But this incident does recall the need for us to be vigilant at all times and the public to be alert at any potential incidents. I will stress to the cabinet that the vigilance must be maintained over the next few days." Speaking outside 10 Downing Street, the new home secretary, Jacqui Smith, said the UK faced a "most serious and sustained threat" from terrorism. Ms Smith stressed the bomb could have caused "significant loss of life" had it exploded. "We can never completely eliminate risks but the government, police and security services are all doing everything possible to protect the public," she told reporters on her first full day in the post. Ms Smith spent the morning chairing the Cobra meeting before attending a cabinet session. The defence secretary, Des Browne, told BBC Radio Scotland: "It does appear to be a very serious incident.
"My first reaction to this is, thank God that we have police and explosives experts who can make these devices safe, and that nobody has been injured." Earlier this year, the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, warned that what is happening on the streets of Baghdad - where car bombs explode frequently - could eventually reach London. It emerged that anti-terrorist police last month spot-checked lorries on the outskirts of the city amid growing fears that extremists would use a bomb in a vehicle. It is almost two years since four suicide bombers brought carnage to London's transport network, killing 52 people, on July 7 2005.
The current threat level for terrorism in the UK, set by MI5, is "severe" - meaning an attack is likely. It is just under "critical", the highest level of alert, and it is not yet known whether the level will change in light of today's events. Senior police sources have stressed they have no direct intelligence that any group or individual is planning such an attack on London
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