Car cache spurs nail-bomb fears

LONDON - The terrorist cell that killed 52 people in London may have been planning to throw nail-bombs into a nightclub or crowds of people.

A cache of 16 bombs was left behind by the July 7 suicide attackers in a car in Luton. The find raises the possibility that another terror unit may be at large.

The discovery of the nail-bombs provides another link with the men behind the July 21 attacks on London, two of whom used similar devices.

It emerged yesterday that the four-man cell had left the devices in a small car at Luton railway station. Police found the vehicle on July 12.

The type and number of bombs is far more alarming than police had previously disclosed. They include molotov-style bottle bombs, packed with explosive and studded with nails. The devices are used by Palestinian bombers in Israel.

Security agencies warned after the July 7 attacks on three Tube trains and a bus that future attacks could be against nightclubs, sports stadiums or large public gatherings. It now appears that the warning could have related to the bombs found in the hire car used by the Leeds-based terrorists.

Confidential Metropolitan Police photographs of the cache were broadcast yesterday by American television network ABC News. Pictures of the carnage caused by the suicide bomber at King's Cross, in which 27 died, were also broadcast.

It is the latest leak from the United States and has caused anger among British police and intelligence agencies.

The disclosure that there was a large cache of different types of ready-to-go bombs raises a number of disturbing questions.

Was the car a bomb store for another team of bombers, who for whatever reason, failed to collect them? Security sources have said there is no evidence yet of a "missing" second team.

Were terrorists planning a different form of attack, and were there other similar devices at large? It may be that the bombers - Mohammed Sadique Khan, 30, Shahzad Tanweer, 22, who hired the car, Hasib Hussain, 18, and Germaine Lindsay, 19 - merely brought with them a choice of devices and dumped the ones they did not need, in the belief they were going to die.

Explosives experts agreed that the Luton discoveries suggested the terrorists might have been planning to throw the deadly nail-bombs into crowded places, although it remained unclear what kind of detonator or fuse would be used.

Andy Oppenheimer, an explosives expert for Jane's Information Group, said the photographs showed "simple and deadly" bombs.

"The nails are simply there to increase the destructive power of the bomb. They can be very deadly in a confined space.

"We don't know where they planned to set them off - it could have been the Underground or any other crowded place."

The nail-bombs appear to be milk bottles packed with explosives, possibly made from household chemicals, mixed with what might be military plastic explosive to stabilise it and increase its power.

Sharp, short nails or tacks are stuck on to the outside and the whole thing is covered in plastic wrap.

The other bombs appear to be tightly wrapped - again with clingfilm - packages of explosives of the type used in the rucksack bombs of July 7. They would just need a detonator.

- INDEPENDENT