London Police kill man at subway
station
By ROBERT BARR,
Associated Press Writer, 1
minute ago
LONDON - Police shot and killed a man wearing a thick coat at a London
subway station Friday, a day after the city was hit by its second wave of
terrorist attacks in two weeks.
The man died after being shot by officers at the Stockwell
subway station in south London, police said.
Passengers said a man, described as South Asian, ran onto a train at
Stockwell station in south London. Witnesses said police chased him, he
tripped, and police then shot him.
"They pushed him onto the floor and unloaded five shots into him. He's
dead," witness Mark Whitby told the British Broadcasting Corp. "He looked like
a cornered fox. He looked petrified."
Britain is home to many immigrants from the South Asian countries of
Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, among others.
Whitby said the man did not appear to have been carrying anything but said
he was wearing a thick coat that looked padded. Temperatures in London on
Friday were in the 70s.
Alistair Drummond, of the London Ambulance Service, said paramedics had
been called to the station at 10:10 a.m.
Service on the Northern and Victoria Tube lines, which pass through
Stockwell, was suspended because of the shooting, British Transport Police
said. Stockwell is one station away from the Oval station, which was affected
by Thursday's attacks.
Also Friday, police said they were investigating an apparent attempt to set
fire to the home of a man identified as one of the July 7 suicide bombers.
Officers went to the home of Jermaine Lindsay in Aylesbury, 40 miles west
of London, on Friday morning after reports of a smell of gasoline in the
street, Thames Valley Police said. They confirmed the presence of some kind of
fuel.
"The substance was found around the family home of the fourth London
bomber, which is currently unoccupied," said Superintendent Carole Haveron.
Police have identified Lindsay as the bomber who attacked a subway train
between Russell Square and King's Cross on July 7.
Elsewhere, police evacuated one of London's largest mosques after a bomb
threat before Friday afternoon prayers.
"Someone phoned our director and said there was a bomb inside," said
Mohammed Abdul Bari, chairman of the East London Mosque.
The Metropolitan Police lifted the cordon about an hour later, saying no
armed officers were involved, and the incident appeared unrelated to the
subway shooting.
More than 6,000 people were expected for Friday afternoon prayers but there
were only about a dozen people inside at the time the threat was telephoned
in.
Investigators, meanwhile, searched for fingerprints, DNA and other forensic
evidence connected to Thursday's attacks on three subway trains and a
double-decker bus, which were hauntingly reminiscent of suicide bombings only
two weeks before.
The devices in Thursday's attacks were either small or faulty, and
authorities said the only person who needed medical attention was a person
suffering an asthma attack. The July 7 bombings on three Underground trains
and a bus killed 56 people, including the four suicide bombers.
A statement posted Friday on an Islamic Web site in the name of an
al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility for Thursday's attacks. The
group, Abu Hafs al Masri Brigade, also claimed responsibility for the July 7
bombings. The statement's authenticity could not immediately be verified.
The attacks targeted trains near the Oval, Warren Street and Shepherd's
Bush stations. The double-decker bus had its windows blown out on Hackney Road
in east London.
Jittery commuters already facing cutbacks in service from the last attack
faced more Underground closures Friday.
"People are worried, but if it's going to happen, it's going to happen,
isn't it?" said Chidi O'Hanekwu, 23. Still, he said he found himself being "a
bit more paranoid" on the ride in.
Mia Clarkson, 24, defiantly said she refused to change her schedule.
"You've got to keep living, don't you?" she said as she exited the Chancery
Lane station after a trip from across town.
Newspapers reflected the city's volatile mood part defiance, part
anxiety.
"Britain will not be beaten," vowed a front-page headline in the Daily
Express. "Is this how we must now live?" asked the Daily Mirror over pictures
of the attacks' aftermath. The Independent had a similar photo montage and the
words: "City of Fear."
Police would not comment on the investigation. Witnesses described seeing
men fleeing several of the attack scenes.
The nearly simultaneous lunch-hour blasts agitated a jittery capital.
Police appealed for witnesses to give information and set up a Web site to
receive amateur video of the attacks and their aftermath.
"Clearly, the intention must have been to kill," Police Commissioner Ian
Blair said. "You don't do this with any other intention."
The London transport agency said the three affected subway stations
remained closed Friday, and service was suspended on all or part of several
lines. Other lines have been disrupted since the attacks two weeks ago.
Authorities said it was too early to determine whether the attacks were
carried out by the same organization as the July 7 blasts or whether they
were linked to al-Qaida.
Saudi ambassador Prince Turki al-Faisal said the attacks had "all the
hallmarks" of al-Qaida.
"The modus operandi, the sheer cowardice associated with them and the
attacks on innocent civilians these are all part and parcel of al-Qaida," he
said in an interview with BBC radio.
Michael Clarke, director of the Center for Defense Studies at King's
College, London, said Thursday's attacks looked "very amateurish."
"It looks like determined imitators who perhaps must have planned this a
little while ago ... but it doesn't look quite like the same network behind
it," Clarke told BBC radio.
