More Terror in London Transit System

July 22, 2005
London police shoot, kill suspect at Stockwell station in latest incident

LONDON (AP) - Police shot and killed a man wearing a thick coat at a London subway station Friday, a day after the city was hit by its second wave of terrorist attacks in two weeks.

The man died after being shot by officers at the Stockwell subway station in south London, police said.

Passengers said a man, described as South Asian, ran onto a train at Stockwell station in south London. Witnesses said police chased him, he tripped, and police then shot him.

"They pushed him onto the floor and unloaded five shots into him. He's dead," witness Mark Whitby told the British Broadcasting Corp. "He looked like a cornered fox. He looked petrified."

Whitby said the man didn't appear to have been carrying anything but said he was wearing a thick coat that looked padded.

Alistair Drummond, of the London Ambulance Service, said paramedics had been called to the station at 10:10 a.m.

Service on the Northern and Victoria Tube lines, which pass through Stockwell, was suspended because of the shooting, British Transport Police said. Stockwell is one station away from the Oval station, which was affected by Thursday's attacks.

Elsewhere, police evacuated one of London's largest mosques after a bomb threat before Friday afternoon prayers.

"Someone phoned our director and said there was a bomb inside," said Mohammed Abdul Bari, chairman of the East London Mosque.

The Metropolitan Police lifted the cordon about an hour later, saying no armed officers were involved, and the incident appeared unrelated to the subway shooting.

More than 6,000 people were expected for Friday afternoon prayers but there were only about a dozen people inside at the time the threat was telephoned in.

Investigators, meanwhile, searched for fingerprints, DNA and other forensic evidence connected to Thursday's attacks on three subway trains and a double-decker bus, which were hauntingly reminiscent of suicide bombings only two weeks before.

The devices in Thursday's attacks were either small or faulty, and authorities said the only person who needed medical attention was a person suffering an asthma attack. The July 7 bombings on three Underground trains and a bus killed 56 people, including the four suicide bombers.

A statement posted Friday on an Islamic Web site in the name of an al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility for Thursday's attacks. The group, Abu Hafs al Masri Brigade, also claimed responsibility for the July 7 bombings. The statement's authenticity could not immediately be verified.

The attacks targeted trains near the Oval, Warren Street and Shepherd's Bush stations. The double-decker bus had its windows blown out on Hackney Road in east London.

Jittery commuters already facing cutbacks in service from the last attack faced more Underground closures Friday.

"People are worried, but if it's going to happen, it's going to happen, isn't it?" said Chidi O'Hanekwu, 23. Still, he said he found himself being "a bit more paranoid" on the ride in.

Mia Clarkson, 24, defiantly said she refused to change her schedule. "You've got to keep living, don't you?" she said as she exited the Chancery Lane station after a trip from across town.

Newspapers reflected the city's volatile mood - part defiance, part anxiety.

"Britain will not be beaten," vowed a front-page headline in the Daily Express. "Is this how we must now live?" asked the Daily Mirror over pictures of the attacks' aftermath. The Independent had a similar photo montage and the words: "City of Fear."

Police would not comment on the investigation. Witnesses described seeing men fleeing several of the attack scenes.

The nearly simultaneous lunch-hour blasts agitated a jittery capital.

Police appealed for witnesses to give information and set up a Web site to receive amateur video of the attacks and their aftermath.

"Clearly, the intention must have been to kill," Police Commissioner Ian Blair said. "You don't do this with any other intention."

The London transport agency said the three affected subway stations remained closed Friday, and service was suspended on all or part of several lines. Other lines have been disrupted since the attacks two weeks ago.

Authorities said it was too early to determine whether the attacks were carried out by the same organization as the July 7 blasts - or whether they were linked to al-Qaida.

Saudi ambassador Prince Turki al-Faisal said the attacks had "all the hallmarks" of al-Qaida.

"The modus operandi, the sheer cowardice associated with them and the attacks on innocent civilians - these are all part and parcel of al-Qaida," he said in an interview with BBC radio.

Michael Clarke, director of the Center for Defense Studies at King's College, London, said Thursday's attacks looked "very amateurish."

"It looks like determined imitators who perhaps must have planned this a little while ago ... but it doesn't look quite like the same network behind it," Clarke told BBC radio.

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Associated Press writer David Rising contributed to this report.