UK: Parsons Green explosion a ‘terrorist incident’

An explosion on a London Underground train is being treated as a “terrorist incident”, British police said.

The Metropolitan Police said emergency services were called to Parsons Green station in west London at 8.20am local time (07:20 GMT) following reports of a fire on a commuter train.

A bucket wrapped in an insulated bag caught fire on a packed London subway train on Friday, sending commuters stampeding in panic at the height of the morning rush hour. Police said they were investigating it as a “terrorist” attack.

“Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the senior national coordinator for CT policing, has declared it a terrorist incident,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

Photos taken inside a District Line train show a white plastic bucket inside a foil-lined shopping bag. Flames and what appear to be wires emerge from the top. London ambulance service said they had sent multiple crews to the Parsons Green station, and 18 people were hospitalised, though none had life-threatening injuries.

London’s Metropolitan Police said counterterrorism investigators were at the Parsons Green station, but it was “too early to confirm the cause of the fire, which will be subject to the investigation that is now under way by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command”.

London Transport said services were cut along the line amid reports on social media of the station’s evacuation.

The Met’s Counter Terrorism Command are investigating after the incident at #ParsonsGreen tube station is declared a terrorist incident

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) September 15, 2017

Source: Al Jazeera