Second Suspect Arrested in Connection to London Subway Attack

British police arrested late on Saturday a second suspect over possible links to Friday morning’s subway attack in Hounslow in west London (Reuters)
British police arrested late on Saturday a second suspect over possible links to Friday morning’s subway attack in Hounslow in west London (Reuters)
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Second Suspect Arrested in Connection to London Subway Attack

British police arrested late on Saturday a second suspect over possible links to Friday morning’s subway attack in Hounslow in west London (Reuters)
British police arrested late on Saturday a second suspect over possible links to Friday morning’s subway attack in Hounslow in west London (Reuters)

A second suspect was arrested late on Saturday in connection to Friday’s subway attack in London.

Police announced on Sunday that a 21-year-old man was detained in Hounslow in west London and is being held under the Terrorism Act.

He has not been charged or identified yet.

Two men have now been held in custody for their possible connection to the bombing attack on a rush-hour subway train Friday morning that injured 29 people in London. An 18-year-old man was arrested Saturday in the departure area of the port of Dover, where ferries leave for France.

The two arrests indicate police and security services believe the attack at the Parsons Green station was part of a coordinated plot, not the act of a single person.

"We are still pursing numerous lines of inquiry and at a great pace," counter-terrorism coordinator Neil Basu of the London police said late Saturday.

Prime Minister Theresa May put Britain on its highest security level of “critical” late on Friday, meaning another attack might be imminent. Soldiers and armed police were deployed to strategic locations such as nuclear power plants.

Police on Saturday launched a massive armed search in the southwestern London suburb of Sunbury. Neighbors were evacuated in a rush from the area and kept away for nearly 10 hours before they were allowed to return to their homes.

The ISIS terrorist group Friday’s attack was carried out by one of its affiliated units. Intelligence officials say there is scant evidence the extremist group was behind the attack.

The improvised explosive device placed on the subway train only partially detonated, limiting the number of injuries.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the casualties would have been far higher if the bomb had fully detonated. Frustrated by the string of terrorist attacks in recent months, she said officials will have to work harder to make bomb components more difficult to obtain.

Britain has endured four other attacks this year, which have killed a total of 36 people. The other attacks in London — near Parliament, on London Bridge and near a mosque in Finsbury Park in north London — used vehicles and knives to kill and wound.



Chinese Ship Runs Aground Off Philippines-occupied Island in Disputed South China Sea

Philippine marines board rubber boats at the Philippine-occupied Thitu island, locally called Pag-asa island in the disputed South China Sea on Wednesday June 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jim Gomez)
Philippine marines board rubber boats at the Philippine-occupied Thitu island, locally called Pag-asa island in the disputed South China Sea on Wednesday June 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jim Gomez)
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Chinese Ship Runs Aground Off Philippines-occupied Island in Disputed South China Sea

Philippine marines board rubber boats at the Philippine-occupied Thitu island, locally called Pag-asa island in the disputed South China Sea on Wednesday June 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jim Gomez)
Philippine marines board rubber boats at the Philippine-occupied Thitu island, locally called Pag-asa island in the disputed South China Sea on Wednesday June 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jim Gomez)

A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-occupied island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said Sunday.

When Filipino forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island on Saturday because of bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help but later saw that the ship had been extricated, regional navy spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said.

No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among the crewmembers or if the ship was damaged, Collado said.

Confrontations have spiked between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy ships in the disputed waters in recent years.

"The alertness of our troops is always there,” Col. Xerxes Trinidad of the Armed Forces of the Philippines told reporters. But when they saw that a probable accident had happened, “we tried to provide assistance as professionals” in accordance with international law on helping distressed vessels at sea.

"We’re always following international law,” Trinidad said.

Filipino villagers living in a fishing village on Thitu, which they call Pagasa island, immediately informed the Philippine military and coast guard after seeing the Chinese ship lying in the shallows about 1.5 nautical miles (2.7 kilometers) from their village, said MP Albayda, a local Filipino official, told The Associated Press.

“They got worried because the Chinese were so close but it was really the strong wind and waves that caused the ship to run aground," said Albayda, adding that other Chinese ships pulled the stricken vessel away.

The stricken ship resembled what the Philippine military had repeatedly said were suspected Chinese militia ships, which had backed the Chinese coast guard and navy in blocking and harassing Philippine coast guard and military vessels in the disputed waters, a busy conduit for global trade and commerce.

Thitu Island is home to a Philippine fishing village and Filipino forces and is the largest of nine islands and islets occupied by the Philippines. It lies about 26 kilometers (16 miles) from Subi Reef, which China transformed into an island base along with six other barren reefs to reinforce its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan are also involved in the long-simmering territorial standoffs, an Asian flashpoint that many fear could pit China and the United States in a major conflict.

The US does not lay any claim to the South China Sea but has repeatedly warned that it's obligated to defend the Philippines, it's longtime treaty ally, if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.