Parsons Green bomb: Counter-terror officers arrest second man

A second man has been detained by detectives investigating the Parsons Green terror attack. The 21-year-old was arrested in Hounslow around midnight on Saturday (September 16). He was held under section 41 of the Terrorism Act and taken to a south London police station where he remains in custody. His arrest is less than four miles from where armed officers are continuing to search a house in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey. Thirty people were injured after an improvised explosive device (IED) partially exploded on a District Line train at Parsons Green station during the Friday morning rush hour (September 15). Three victims remain in hospital. An 18-year-old was detained on suspicion of a terror offence by Kent Police in Dover on Saturday morning (September 16), the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)said. He was held in the port area of the town, which is the busiest ferry hub in Europe and serves as a commercial gateway to the French coast, including Calais and Dunkirk. The arrest sparked an evacuation of Dover port and a number of items were recovered in a police search, MPS Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said, adding that detectives were “keeping an open mind” as to whether more people were involved in the Tube attack. It is understood the arrested teenager lived at a property in Sunbury-on-Thames where officers are still searching. The house belongs to Ronald Jones, 88, and Penelope Jones, 71 – known for fostering hundreds of children, including refugees. They were rewarded for their service to children when they were made MBEs in 2010. The Prime Minister announced on Saturday that the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre had escalated the UK`s terror threat status to `critical` in the wake of the attack. It was the fourth time since 2006 the country has been placed at “critical”, meaning an attack “may be imminent” – the other occasion this year being the day after the Manchester Arena suicide bombing which killed 22 people on May 22. The military has been dispatched to key sites across the country to free up armed police officers after the country`s terror threat level was raised to its highest point. Friday`s IED – for which the so-called Islamic State (Daesh) claimed responsibility – reportedly contained the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP) and nails, but is thought to have only partially detonated from inside a bucket. After hosting a second meeting of the Cobra emergency committee on Saturday , Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: “Police have made good progress. “There is no doubt that this was a serious IED and it was good fortune it did so little damage, although we are of course sympathetic to the people affected by it. “We will have to make sure we take all the steps we can to ensure that the materials this man was able to collect become more and more difficult to combine together.” Ms Rudd said 30 people were injured by what witnesses described as a “fireball” that erupted from the device, with other victims wounded in the ensuing stampede at Parsons Green. Security minister, Ben Wallace, said the bomb contained the same powerful explosive used to kill 22 people in the Manchester Arena attack but “didn’t go off” as intended. “We are trying to track down who did it, whether it’s a bomber or bombers,” he added. There were fears the number of those hurt could have been much higher – with the real potential for life-threatening injuries – had the bomb, which was concealed within a LIDLsupermarket carrier bag, fully exploded. Major-General Chip Chapman, the former head of counter-terrorism in the Ministry of Defence, said the density of rush-hour crowds meant lives would have been lost in a full blast. “You could have had everyone in that carriage killed,” he told The Independent. “There’s a fair chance that no one would have got out of there alive or without life-changing injuries.” Maj-Gen Chapman said shrapnel would have increased the toll, but that part of the device appeared to have failed, adding: “One of