Thread: Car rams into Scottish airport terminal - police

Car rams into Scottish airport terminal - police
Sat Jun 30, 2007 9:34 PM IST
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By Alistair Bell

GLASGOW, Scotland (Reuters) - A four-wheel-drive vehicle raced across a central reservation and rammed into the front doors of Glasgow airport's main terminal on Saturday before exploding in flames, Glasgow police and witnesses said.

A Glasgow police spokeswoman said there were no immediate reports of any injuries and said the blaze was under control.

Witnesses told the BBC that the vehicle, a Land Rover or a Jeep Cherokee, had exploded shortly after crashing into the glass front doors of the terminal, and said there was a heavy stench of petrol.

"It raced across the central reservation and went straight into the building," said taxi driver Ian Crosby outside the terminal.

Crosby said a stocky Asian man had got out of the car and was quickly tackled to the ground by bystanders.

"It would appear to me to have been a deliberate attack. I think this was a terrorist attack," Crosby said.

A separate witness told Sky News that a man had attempted to take a gas cylinder from the car before the vehicle went up in flames, but that could not be independently confirmed.

Sky quoted Glasgow police as saying four people had been arrested in the wake of the incident.

The attack came a day after police in London foiled a plot involving two car bombs packed with fuel, gas canisters and nails that were parked in central London on Friday night and set to detonate.

Anti-terror police said the car bombs could have killed or maimed scores of people. A large-scale counter-terrorism operation has been launched in the wake of the thwarted plot, which came less than two years after 52 commuters were killed in a series of suicide bomb blasts on London's transport system.

In Glasgow, another witness told the BBC he was not sure that the car was intended to be a bomb as the explosion that occurred after it crashed was relatively small.

The witness, Stephen Clarkson, who said he had helped tackle one of the occupants of the vehicle to the ground, said another Asian man from the vehicle was badly burnt in the incident. He was also detained and taken away by police, he said.

"There was chaos at the airport," James Edgar, another witness, told Sky News. "Suddenly everyone said to get out of the airport."

BAA, which manages the airport, was not immediately available to comment.

Glasgow airport handles around 8.5 million passengers a year, according to its Web site, and would have been packed with holidaymakers at the time of the incident, which took place at around 1520 (1420 GMT), according to Glasgow police.

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Car explodes in Scottish airport after London bombs
Sat Jun 30, 2007 11:47 AM EDT
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By Mark Trevelyan and Luke Baker
LONDON (Reuters) - A four-wheel-drive vehicle crashed into the main terminal at Glasgow airport on Saturday and exploded in flames, a day after police foiled a possible al Qaeda plot to detonate two car bombs in central London.

A witness in Glasgow told Sky News that an Asian man who had been inside the vehicle scuffled with police immediately after the incident, was wrestled to the ground and detained.

Another witness said a second man, also Asian, was on fire following the blaze and badly burnt.

"There was chaos at the airport," said witness James Edgar. "Suddenly everyone said to get out of the airport."

BAA, which manages the airport, was not immediately available to comment.

In London, police scoured hours of CCTV footage and extra squads were deployed on the streets, particularly around landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament, but tourists and Londoners appeared largely unperturbed, going about their business as usual.

An intensive counter-terrorism investigation was launched after the discovery in the early hours of Friday of a metallic green Mercedes packed with up to 60 litres of fuel, several gas canisters and a large quantity of nails.

The vehicle was parked outside the Tiger Tiger night club in the busy theatreland district of London, and aroused suspicion only after ambulance workers, treating someone else, thought they had noticed smoke inside the vehicle.

A mobile phone, which security experts believed might have been a detonation device, was left inside the fume-filled car.

A second Mercedes packed with gas and nails was later found to have been parked just a few hundred yards from the first.

Police said the two vehicles were clearly linked. Both bombs were quickly defused but, had they gone off, would have caused significant injuries and deaths, police said. Continued ...

The thwarted bomb plot came to light two years after a coordinated attack by suicide bombers on London's transport system killed 52 commuters. It appeared to have similarities to an earlier plot in which an al Qaeda militant planned to blow up gas-filled bombs inside limousines in London.

Plans for policing of public events in the coming 10 days were reviewed to ensure public security, including a Gay Pride parade in London on Saturday, the Wimbledon tennis tournament and a concert for Princess Diana on Sunday.

"Appropriate policing will be in place for all events," a police spokeswoman said. "Safety and security is our number one priority."

CCTV SURVEILLANCE

Despite the continuing threat, tourists were stoical.

"You could be safe anywhere or you could be safe nowhere. It hasn't put me off traveling here," said Ivonne Geller, 49, a tourist from Mexico strolling outside the Tiger Tiger club.

"I just feel angry about the methods of these people who try to harm innocent people."

Intelligence sources believe there is a growing probability that the plot was hatched by an al Qaeda-style group.

"The feeling it is Islamist, rather than the other possibilities, is very quietly growing stronger," a source said.

The area of London where the car bombs were left, known as Haymarket, is one of the busiest in the capital and one of the most intensely monitored by CCTV surveillance.

Police said they were studying hundreds of hours of footage in the hunt for possible suspects. The U.S. television channel ABC reported that a "crystal clear" image of a suspect had been found, but British police would not confirm that.

(Additional reporting by Avril Ormsby)

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.


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