UK Police Make 'Significant' Arrest in Hunt for London Train Bomber

An injured woman is led away after the terrorist attack at Parsons Green underground station in London, Britain, September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor
An injured woman is led away after the terrorist attack at Parsons Green underground station in London, Britain, September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor
TT

UK Police Make 'Significant' Arrest in Hunt for London Train Bomber

An injured woman is led away after the terrorist attack at Parsons Green underground station in London, Britain, September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor
An injured woman is led away after the terrorist attack at Parsons Green underground station in London, Britain, September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

British police hunting those behind a homemade bomb attack, which injured 30 people on a London underground train on Friday, said they had arrested an 18-year-old man in a “significant” move.

"We have made a significant arrest in our investigation this morning," Neil Basu, Senior National Co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said in a statement. "Although we are pleased with the progress made, this investigation continues and the threat level remains at critical."

The man was arrested by Kent police under the Terrorism Act in the southern port area of Dover on Saturday morning.

Thirty people were treated in hospital after the improvised device detonated in the packed train at Parsons Green station in southwest London on Friday morning, in what was Britain's fifth terror attack in six months.

The toll was revised upwards by one early Saturday.

Images from inside the train car after the blast showed that the device was contained in a bucket with wires hanging out of it and that it was concealed in a plastic shopping bag.

Police are combing through closed-circuit TV images and have extensively studied the remains of the device without giving details about it.

The train hit by the bomber had video cameras in each car, and the London Underground network has thousands of cameras at the entrances to stations and along the labyrinth of subterranean and aboveground passageways leading from the entryway to the trains.

Saturday's “arrest will lead to more activity from our officers," police said.

"For strong investigative reasons we will not give any more details on the man we arrested at this stage.

ISIS said a group "detachment" had been behind the bombing.

Prime Minister Theresa May announced late Friday that the threat level had been raised to "critical -- meaning another attack could be imminent -- and said troops would take over guarding key sites to free police officers for deployment elsewhere.



Grossi Wants to Meet with Iran’s Pezeshkian ‘at Earliest Convenience’

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
TT

Grossi Wants to Meet with Iran’s Pezeshkian ‘at Earliest Convenience’

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi announced he intends to visit Tehran through a letter he addressed to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iranian Mehr Agency reported that Grossi sent a congratulatory message to the Iranian president-elect, which stated: “I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to you on your election win as President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

“Cooperation between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been at the focal attention of the international circles for many years. I am confident that, together, we will be able to make decisive progress on this crucial matter.”

“To that effect, I wish to express my readiness to travel to Iran to meet with you at the earliest convenience,” Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted Grossi as saying.

The meeting – should it take place - will be the first for Pezeshkian, who had pledged during his election campaign to be open to the West to resolve outstanding issues through dialogue.

Last week, American and Israeli officials told the Axios news site that Washington sent a secret warning to Tehran last month regarding its fears of Iranian research and development activities that might be used to produce nuclear weapons.

In May, Grossi expressed his dissatisfaction with the course of the talks he held over two days in Iran in an effort to resolve outstanding matters.

Since the death of the former Iranian president, Ibrahim Raisi, the IAEA chief refrained from raising the Iranian nuclear file, while European sources said that Tehran had asked to “freeze discussions” until the internal situation was arranged and a new president was elected.