Police Stop Major Terror Attack In London
A 'massive' car bomb was diffused by West London Police.
A "massive" explosive device found in a car in central London has been defused, Sky sources say.
It is believed that a major terrorist attack in the heart of the capital has been thwarted.
Police were called to reports of a suspicious vehicle parked in The Haymarket area shortly before 2am this morning.
The area was cordoned off by police who examined the car.
They discovered what appeared to be a potentially explosive device, which was then made safe by specialist teams.
It is believed that the vehicle was a silver Mercedes which contained gas canisters.
***UPDATE***
I posted this moments after the story broke. It has been updated many times. The Sky News report is getting a little weird so this is from al-Reuters.
Police defused a car bomb packed with gasoline, propane and nails in London's busy theatre district on Friday, foiling an attack that could have killed many people and echoed a previous al Qaeda plot, police said.
Police also sealed off two more central London streets -- Park Lane and Fleet Street -- as they investigated other suspicious vehicles.
The bomb was found in a green Mercedes parked outside a night club shortly after 1 a.m. (midnight GMT), when hundreds of people were packed in the busy night-life district a half-a-mile from the prime minister's Downing Street residence.
The police, alerted by ambulance workers who thought they saw smoke inside the car, defused the bomb, which Sky News said was rigged to detonate with a mobile-phone-triggered device.
Authorities said they did not know who left the bomb but they had begun a counter-terrorism investigation.
"It is obvious that if the device had detonated there could have been significant injury or loss of life," said Peter Clarke, the head of London's anti-terrorist police.
***UPDATE 6/29/07 2:15pm***
CBS reports that a posting was made to an Islamist website several hours before the vehicle was found stating, "Today I say: Rejoice, by Allah, London shall be bombed."
***UPDATE 6/29/07 3:15pm***
A second car with bomb components has been found in London.
A second car found on a London street on Friday contained possible bomb materials, sources told CNN, hours after police disarmed an explosives-filled car in the city's busy theater district.
The second car was towed from Trafalgar Square to Park Lane overnight, because it was illegally parked, the sources said.
At the Park Lane garage, workers called authorities when they became suspicious after news of the first incident, because the car smelled of gas.
Police and security sources say the car was found to contain components very similar to the first car -- definitely fuel, and possibly much more.
They said the car is of grave concern, and could potentially be a second car bomb.
A senior U.S. official with knowledge of the London investigation told CNN the car was linked to the vehicle outside the club, and that some materials found inside the car were very similar to explosive materials found in the car near Piccadilly Circus.
