London Car Bomb Plot Fails

Two car bombs found. The BBC blames "international elements".

A car bomb planted in central London would have caused “carnage” if it had exploded, police sources have said.

A controlled explosion was carried out on the car, packed with 60 litres of petrol, gas cylinders and nails, in Haymarket, near Piccadilly Circus. An ambulance crew saw smoke coming from the green metallic Mercedes, near the Tiger Tiger nightclub at 0130 BST. Later part of London’s Park Lane was closed to traffic after reports of a suspicious vehicle. [...]

“International elements” are believed to be involved with the Haymarket bomb, Whitehall sources told the BBC.

According to the Daily Mail, an Islamic website predicted the London bomb plot hours before the attack on the nightclub was thwarted.

It emerged last night that hours before the first bomb was found, a message on a jihadist website proclaimed: "Today I say: Rejoice by Allah, London shall be bombed."

Posted in the "Al Hesbah" chatroom, the message suggested the attack was linked to the war in Iraq and to the controversial author Salman Rushdie, whose award of a knighthood earlier this month sparked outrage in the Islamic world.