Two vehicles believed to be linked to Thursday’s bombings in London were found in a Luton car park and at a home belonging to a South African woman living in Leeds’ Dewsbury area for more than 20 years, The Star newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The bombing killed at least 52 people and injured 700 others.
The woman, whose name is known to The Star, originally hails from Germiston and was married to a British national who died a few years ago, the newspaper reported.
Yusuf Abramjee, the head of news and talk programming for Primedia Broadcasting, was at the scene while police searched the South African woman’s home.
He told The Star that the police’s investigation was believed to centre around either the woman’s son or son-in-law, both of whom lived with her but were not home during the raid at her house on Tuesday.
A Dewsbury resident who spoke to The Star from the area on Tuesday night, said the South African woman was a ”strong community worker”.
”She does a lot of work with schools and old-age homes in the area, organising trips for aged residents. She went to a garden party hosted by Queen Elizabeth in recognition of her community work,” said the man, who did not want to be identified, the newspaper reported.
According to the article, in the search for the bombers British police searched six Yorkshire houses, including the homes of three of the four men they suspect carried out the attacks.
The newspaper reported that police arrested one man during the raids on Tuesday, uncovered what they said was ”dangerous” material and seized two vehicles which they believed was linked to the bombing.
Three bombs exploded within 50 seconds of each other on underground trains that had all passed through King’s Cross station. A fourth exploded 57 minutes later on a bus not far away.
Leeds has a Muslim population of around 30 000 — one of the largest in Britain, with the area’s residents ”shocked” by Tuesday’s raids and fearing an anti-Muslim backlash.
‘Investigation is moving at great speed’
British police believe they have identified four men as the prime suspects in the bombings, as they prepared to question a man arrested during raids in the north of England.
”We are conducting a complex and intensive terrorist investigation and I have to tell you that this investigation is moving at great speed,” said Peter Clarke, head of the metropolitan police’s anti-terrorist branch.
”We also have very strong forensic and other evidence that it is very likely one of the men from West Yorkshire died in the explosion at Aldgate” in east London, Clarke told a press conference on Tuesday.
He said police had evidence linking four men — three from the West Yorkshire area, where police raided several properties earlier on Tuesday — to the four blasts.
”The investigation quite early led us to have concerns about the movement and activities of four men, three of whom came from the West Yorkshire area,” he said, without giving an indication as to their identity or backgrounds.
”We are trying to establish their movements in the run-up to last week’s attacks, and specifically to establish if they all died in the explosions.”
”Today we executed six warrants issued under the Terrorism Act at various premises in the West Yorkshire area. These included the home addresses of three of the four men to whom I have referred.”
”A detailed forensic examination will now follow and this is likely to take some time to complete,” Clarke said.
Andy Hayman, the metropolitan police assistant commissioner for specialist operations, said painstaking work had led to several breakthroughs.
”It’s now nearly a week since more than 50 people were murdered and several hundred injured in an appalling terrorist attack here in London. Innocent people going about their daily lives, be it as tourist, working or simply living here as residents, have been affected,” he said.
”From that moment on, we have worked painstakingly to put together every shred of evidence that we could to mount what we want to be a successful investigation,” Hayman said, adding that they had taken ”several hundred witness statements” following dozens of calls from the public to a hotline.
He also said police had begun trawling through more than 2 500 closed circuit television tapes.
Clarke said police knew ”that all four of these men arrived in London by train on the morning of Thursday, July 7”.
”We have identified CCTV footage showing the four men at King’s Cross station shortly before 8:30am [7.30am GMT] on that morning, July 7.”
Trains from Leeds to London terminate at that station, which is also a busy junction for the underground subway network.
Just 20 minutes later there were explosions on three underground trains and a fourth blast later killed at least 13 people on a London double-decker bus in Tavistock Square.
”One of the men who had set out from West Yorkshire was reported missing by his family to the central casualty bureau shortly after 10am last Thursday, July 7. We have now been able to establish that he was joined on his journey to London by three other men,” Clarke said.
”We have since found personal documents bearing the names of three of those four men close to the scenes of three of the explosions. As regards the man who was reported missing, some of his property was found on the route 30 bus in Tavistock Square.”
”Property in the name of a second man was found at the scene of the Aldgate bomb and, in relation to a third man, property in his name was found at the scene of both the Aldgate and the Edgware Road bombs.”
‘He was getting annoyed’
Meanwhile, a man who got off a packed London bus just before it exploded said on Tuesday that he had noticed one of his fellow passengers — possibly the bomber — fiddling anxiously with a bag. He said he heard a bloodcurdling scream just before the bus blew up.
”This young guy kept diving into this bag or whatever he had in front of his feet, and it was like he was taking a couple of grapes off a bunch of grapes, both hands were in the bag,” Richard Jones (61) of Bracknell, west of London, told The Associated Press. ”He must have done that at least every minute if not every 30 seconds.
He was getting annoyed, the only reason I noticed it was that he was annoying me.” – Sapa-AP, Sapa, Sapa-AFP