Four London bomb suspects arrested by police

FOUR suspected would-be suicide bombers have been rounded up by police hunting those responsible for the failed July 21 attacks in a dramatic day in London yesterday.

The fourth man was held in Rome, an Italian Government minister confirmed.

He was described as a Somali man called Osman Hussain who is a naturalised British citizen, Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said.

Earlier, two men detectives strongly believe to be would-be suicide bombers were arrested in London.

One of them was believed to be Muktar Said-Ibrahim, 27, who allegedly tried to blow himself up on a number 26 bus in Hackney, east London.

The other is believed to have been responsible for an attempted bombing near Oval Tube station on the same day.

A third man was also arrested as armed police launched two raids in west London yesterday morning.

Police believe there were almost certainly five bombers on July 21. The fifth man is still on the run.

Reports from Italy said Hussain was 27 years old and had a brother living in Rome. Italian police have been collaborating with Scotland Yard and British intelligence agencies.

In London one of the armed raids ended in a siege at a flat on an estate near Wormwood Scrubs Prison in west London.

Among the names shouted by police at the flat in Block K of Dalgarno Gardens were “Mohammed” and “Mr Ahmed.”

Witness Philomena Daly said: “I heard them say ‘Mr Ahmed, come to the door’.”

She saw two policemen dressed in blue overalls taking a man in a white forensic suit out of the estate.

Until yesterday, police had arrested only one of the bomb suspects. Yasin Hassan Omar, a 24-year-old Somalian alleged to have tried to set off a bomb on a train near Warren Street, was held during an operation in Birmingham on Wednesday morning.

Detectives believe there was also a fifth bomber because a fifth device was found in a rucksack dumped on open ground at Little Wormwood Scrubs, a few hundred yards from yesterday’s siege.

It is believed the fifth bomber may have tried to detonate his device on a bus or train but no one noticed and he dumped it.

Yesterday’s siege took place at a block of flats owned by the Peabody Trust and involved elite plainclothes firearms officers and snipers from Scotland Yard’s SO19 unit.

Nicolas Holliman, who lives on the 350-property estate, said he had seen four officers with guns and rifles and a specialist firearms officer in a gas mask.

They were focusing on a top-floor flat in one of the blocks on the estate and kept asking for “Mohammed” to come out.

“He was being asked to come out with his hands up, naked or in underclothes,” he said.

“They were giving directions for him to come out, telling him he would be safe if he puts his hands up.”

Mr Holliman said he could tell there was more than one man in the flat by the way police were shouting and there were protests coming from the flat.

Another witness said one of the suspects was heard shouting “I’ve got rights.”

After some time, Mr Holliman said he heard several shots which he believed were gas being fired at the flat and then there was silence.

Witness Lisa Davis phoned Sky News and while she was talking on live television, police could be heard in the background shouting at “Mohammed” and telling him: “You must do what we say.”

Ms Davis said: “We have got two men standing outside the flats right now. They have got their guns pointing upwards at the flat. ‘Take your clothes off’ is what they are telling him, ‘exit the building’. ‘Walk into the corridor and stop’ is what they are telling him right now.

“They are asking him does he understand. They keep asking him: ‘Is there a reason that you shouldn’t leave the flat?’

“They have been saying this to him for about half an hour.”

She said the officers had been trying to reassure the man that he would be safe.

In the other raid less than a mile away, dozens of officers, some wearing gas masks, swooped on the Tavistock Crescent area of Notting Hill, clearing a wide area and cordoning off streets. Snipers were stationed behind parked cars.

During the day there were reports of explosions and gunshots from residents near the raids.

But the explosion is thought to have been police blowing the door off a flat and the “shots” were stun grenades or CS gas.

Footage, to be broadcast on ITV News, shows two dark-skinned men standing bare-chested on a balcony outside a flat on the Peabody Estate.

“It was shot by a resident in a flat opposite and shows the moment that police go into the flat, there is lots of noise and we can hear the officers shouting,” said an ITV News spokesperson.

“We also see the moment that two suspected bombers are ordered onto a balcony outside the flat. Both men are naked, we can see them only from the waist up and they have their hands in the air and behind their heads. The police are addressing them and slowly inching them back inside the flat. Both men have a look of absolute surrender, they appear to be very shocked.”