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Security threat lowered after London bombing
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BRITAIN lowered its security threat level to severe from critical yesterday after an investigation into a bomb attack on the London Underground progressed.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: “Following the attack on Parsons Green last Friday, the police have made good progress with what is an ongoing operation.
“The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, which reviews the threat level the UK is under, has decided to lower that level from critical to severe.”
The level was raised to critical, meaning an attack is expected imminently, on Friday after the bomb injured 30 people in an underground train. Severe, the second-highest level, means an attack is highly likely.
A second man has been arrested in connection with the incident.
The 21-year-old was detained under Britain’s terrorism laws in the west London suburb of Hounslow just before midnight on Saturday, London police said in a statement.
Police had earlier arrested an 18-year-old man in a departure lounge in the port of Dover in what they called a “significant” step before raiding a property in Sunbury, a town near London about 6 kilometers from Hounslow.
The homemade bomb shot flames through a packed train carriage at west London’s Parsons Green tube station during the Friday morning rush hour but apparently failed to detonate fully.
Police said yesterday that they were searching a residential property in Stanwell, Surrey, close to the perimeter of London’s Heathrow Airport, in connection with the Hounslow arrest. The search of the property in Sunbury, also in the county of Surrey next to the capital, was continuing but there were no safety risks to local residents, they said.
Local media reported that the Sunbury home belongs to a couple who have fostered hundreds of children, including refugees. The BBC said the couple, 88-year-old Ronald Jones and Penelope Jones, 71, had been honored by Queen Elizabeth for their work with children.
Islamic State claimed responsibility, as it has for other attacks in Britain this year, including two in London and one at a concert by American singer Ariana Grande in Manchester in May.
Rudd said yesterday that the second arrest indicated it was not a “lone-wolf” attack, but there was no evidence Islamic State was involved.
“It is inevitable that so-called Islamic State, or Daesh, will reach in and try to claim responsibility. We have no evidence to suggest that yet,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
“But as this unfolds, and as the police do their investigations, we will make sure that we find out exactly how he was radicalized, if we can.”
The bomb struck as passengers were traveling toward the center of the British capital. Some suffered burns and others were hurt in a stampede to escape. Health officials said none was thought to be in a serious condition.
Late on Friday, Prime Minister Theresa May put Britain on its highest security level of critical, and soldiers and armed police were deployed to strategic locations such as nuclear power plants.
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