Friday, June 29, 2007
Officers were contacted at 2am after a pale green Mercedes drove into a number of bins outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in the Haymarket area. Witnesses said that the driver of the vehicle jumped out of the car and ran away, and nightclub bouncers called the police.
The car was discovered to contain two gas canisters and was reported to to be full of nails.
The incident came on Gordon Brown's second full day in 10 Downing Street, marking his first real test as Prime Minister. Mr Brown was due to host a Cabinet meeting today and said that he would remind his ministers that "vigilance must be maintained".
As investigations at Haymarket continued, with the area almost completely closed off, there was a second alert close to London Bridge Station, where a street was temporarily closed to traffic while a suspicious car was examined.
A massive manhunt for the driver of the Haymarket vehicle was under way, with police trawling through CCTV footage from last night. Congestion charge cameras situated throughout central London are also capable of tracking where the car came from, and which routes it took.
Terror groups like al-Qaeda are believed to have been planning attacks on nightclubs, which are considered by Islamic fundamentalists to be symbols of Western decadence.
Earlier this year, a number of Islamist extremist terrorists were imprisoned for planning a number of major terror attacks, including a bomb attack on London's Ministry of Sound nightclub.
Tiger Tiger is a combined bar, restaurant and nightclub, part of a wider national chain, that opens from midday until the early hours of the morning. It has several floors, and is believed to have a capacity of over 1,000. Last night was scheduled to be 'ladies' night' at the club, complete with female DJ.
Yesterday, the jury went out in the trial of six men accused of taking part in an extremist plot to carry out a series of suicide bombings on London's transport system on July 21, 2005 - two weeks after 52 commuters were killed in the UK's first suicide bomb attacks on 7/7.
Police this morning cordoned off a number of entrances and exits to Piccadilly Circus Tube Station, which was then closed for safety reasons by Transport for London. The station is set to remain closed for much of the morning, along with roads all around the area.
A Metropolitan Police statement said today: "As a precautionary measure, the immediate area was cordoned off while the vehicle was examined by explosives officers.
"They discovered what appeared to be a potentially viable explosive device. This was made safe.
"The MPS Counter Terrorism Command has launched an investigation. The Haymarket is likely to remain closed for the foreseeable future.
"The public are advised that there is likely to be local disruption to both pedestrians and vehicles."
In addition to their Haymarket investigation, police were thought to be conducting a huge operation around other London landmarks - including Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament - to search for other potential devices.
At Tooley Street, just outside London Bridge Station today, the road was completely closed off today as police examined a black BMW car.
A witness told The Times that he had called the police at 10.20am after seeing the driver of the car, which had a personalised number plate, acting strangely.
"I saw a guy get out of the car. He then came back and appeared to put something inside the car, and then ran away," he said.
Despite Tooley Street being closed off, London Bridge Station remained open and Scotland Yard confirmed soon afterwards that the incident had been a false alarm..
Today's Cabinet meeting was to be briefed by Jacqui Smith, the new Home Secretary, who was first chairing a session of Cobra, the Government's emergency civil contingencies committee.
This morning Mr Brown said: "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.
"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".
Going into her meeting this morning, Ms Smith said: “What I think is very important is that the public remain vigilant at all times. Obviously the police are investigating and I think we should allow them to get on with that without undue speculation.”
The attempted attack comes as the current terror threat against the UK is assessed as "severe," the second highest level, meaning that intelligence analysts consider an attack highly likely. The highest level, "critical", means that an attack is expected imminently.
Earlier this month security spot checks were introduced on petrol and chemical tankers, cement mixers - and other vehicles that could be used by suicide bombers - on key routes into London.
That reflects increasing concern in the security services that UK terrorists might copy tactics used to deadly effect by insurgents in Iraq. Bombers in Baghdad have blown themselves up in hijacked petrol tankers and, in at least three attacks this year, have used chlorine gas canisters in lorry bombs.
The checks follow a warning this year by Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, that "vehicle-borne weaponry is the greatest danger that we can face". But Scotland Yard said on June 6 that it had no specific intelligence to suggest that a lorry-bomb attack was imminent.
The Metropolitan Police's Counter-Terrorism Command set up the checks as a precautionary measure but they were then incorporated into Operation Mermaid, a long-running operation aimed at ensuring vehicle safety.
An al-Qaeda terrorist convicted last year had been planning vehicle-borne bomb attacks in London when he was arrested. Dhiren Barot pleaded guilty to plotting a series of attacks, including detailed plans to pack stretch limousines with gas cylinders and explosives and detonate them in car parks beneath hotels or office blocks.