New evidence suggests four suicide bombers, including at least three Britons of Pakistani descent, carried out the terror attacks in London, officials said Tuesday. Surveillance cameras captured the men as they arrived in the capital just 20 minutes before the explosions began.
Police raided six homes in Leeds searching for explosives and computer files that would shed more light on what were believed to be the first suicide bombings in Western Europe. They arrested a man, identified by the British news agency Press Association as a relative of one of the suspected bombers.
A town councilor said at least three of the presumed suicide bombers were British citizens of Pakistani ancestry. Press Association said the men had driven a rental car to Luton, 30 miles north of London, and then boarded a commuter train to London’s King’s Cross station. Police closed Luton’s train station and carried out a controlled explosion on a parked car, which the BBC reported had explosives.
Closed-circuit TV video showed all four men arriving at King’s Cross by 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, about 20 minutes before the blasts began, Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch, said at a news conference.
Two militant Islamic groups have claimed responsibility for the bombings, which killed at least 52 people on three subway trains and on a bus. Police had previously indicated there was no evidence of suicide bombings, suggesting instead that timers were used.
Although police stopped short of calling them suicide attacks, Clarke said “strong forensic and other evidence” suggests one of the suspects was killed in a subway bombing and property belonging to the three others was found at the location of the other blasts.
———-
Compiled from news services and edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Scott Kleinberg (skleinberg@tribune.com)
