Police has arrested has two refugees one from Iraq and the other Syria in connection to the Parsons Green bombing that injured 30 people. The alleged attackers may have built his bomb in a shed at the bottom of the back garden of his Surrey foster home, it has emerged. Detectives are investigating whether the outhouse in Sunbury-on-Thames could have afforded the 18-year-old suspect the privacy he needed to allegedly construct the device.
Though the Met Police have not confirmed the identity of the refugees, sources have revealed one of them were Yahyah Farroukh, 21, a Syrian refugee, who was arrested outside the chicken shop where he worked in Hounslow on Saturday night just hours after police caught another 18 year old suspected for planting the tube bomb at the Port of Dover. Farroukh was allegedly studying at the West Thames College in Isleworth since 2013, though originally he is from Damascus, according to his facebook profile.
The Iraqi refugee who has been arrested allegedly trying to escape from Port of Dover, remains in the custody of police. Both men are believed to have spent some time at the home of elderly British carers Ronald Jones, 88 and Penelope Jones 71. The couple were honoured in 2010 with an MBE for services to children and families. Police are searching their home too, and have learnt to have fostered at least 268 children, including refugees from conflict zones, in the last four decades.
What happened on Friday
It was a typical Friday morning. Commuters boarded a packed eastbound district line from Wimbledon, which is the longest tube line in the London underground, to go to work. The district line travels through Westminster, where the Parliament is, and also passes through many major tourist sites and national railway stations like Victoria, Blackfriars, Cannon Street. When the train just pulled into Parsons Green Station in south-west London at 8:20am, 5 stops from where the train had started, an "improvised explosive device" detonated, believed to be on a timer. The explosive was in what looks like a white bucket, (often used by builders) in a supermarket carrier bag, and went off in a loud bang and flash. The train doors fell open moment this happened, people ran for their lives to the platforms.
Police vehicles were heard rushing down the west London road, with sirens blazing as they pass supermarkets, furniture stores and music shops. The station is a very small one. There are no escalators or lifts, with a tiny staircase, and people were trampled, as they panicked to get out. And bit by bit, commuters who were stuck on the trains behind are being allowed to exit, as things settled.
Police immediately put up cordon around Parsons Green station, with every side street blocked off by blue and white tape.
Immediately other tube stations were also put on high alert. A commuter Vivek, who was using Canary Wharf station an hour after the Parsons Green incident told the newspaper, “There were heavy checks at tube station now. People looked alarmed.” Canary Wharf which is 10 miles away from the Parsons Green station, is a major financial district of London.
Thirty people were hurt at the incident, though none seriously and are being treated in hospital, mostly for burn injuries and the incident is being treated as terrorism, police confirmed.
Parsons Green is essentially a quiet residential area with the popular Chelsea Football Club at stone's throw away distance. Police has requested commuters to be vigilant and not keep looking at their phones while they walk or travel.
Mark Rowley, Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations of the Metropolitan Police Service said, "This was a detonation of an improvised explosive device. The scene currently remains cordoned off and the investigation continues...
"Londoners can expect to see an enhanced police presence, particularly across the transport system across the day."
He asked the public to remain "vigilant" and said they should "not be alarmed".
Mr Rowley said anyone who took pictures or videos at the scene can upload them to ukpoliceimageappeal.co.uk.
What witnesses saw
Witnesses have described seeing at least one passenger with facial injuries, while others spoke of "panic" as alarmed passengers left the train at the station. There was a stampede, people falling on each other- a total chaos when nobody knew what exactly was happening.
Ronan Breen a local resident, lives around the corner from the incident. Married to an Indian woman from Kolkata, every day in the week he drops off their 3 year old daughter to a nursery close to Parsons Green station, and then takes the tube from Parsons Green to his office in central London. On Friday he was late by a few minutes, and police cars just zoomed passed him towards the station, and he heard helicopters hovering above the head, when he realised something was terribly wrong. As he approached the station, he was told what may have happened, and he was left shocked. Speaking to Asian Voice exclusively he said, “I started late from home today. So I escaped this carnage by a few minutes. I had to find an alternative way to get to work.”
Passenger Peter Crowley said he was sitting in the carriage, travelling from Wimbledon, when the explosion happened.
He reportedly said his head was burned by a "really hot intense fireball above my head" and added: "There were people a lot worse than me."
BBC London presenter Riz Lateef, who was at Parsons Green on her way in to work, said: "There was panic as people rushed from the train, hearing what appeared to be an explosion.
"People were left with cuts and grazes from trying to flee the scene. There was lots of panic."
Afzal Ahraf, a visiting fellow at Nottingham University Centre for Conflict and Terror said, said, "It is an indication that the terrorist threat is still live. we are very fortunate that in this particular case, nobody seems to seriously hurt. I am sure suspects will be arrested soon after CCTV footages are analysed. If the explosive today was substantial the result would have been catastrophic. My daughter was on the train behind this train where the explosion happened, and it could have easily been her today on the train. I was on a train when the 7/7 bombings happened in London, and it could have easily me dead in one of those explosions. We have some of the best security services in the world and counter terrorism units in the world and they are keeping the threat low. But we do need to think about how to eliminate this threat, and that is looking at the global political situation which feeds as the motivation for this horrible incident "
This is the fifth terrorism incident of 2017 in which an attack has taken place. It's the only one this year in which nobody has died. The previous four saw 36 people killed.
The Met Police is now being assisted by MI5 on the investigation.
