Devices 'may have targeted emergency workers'

Terrorism expert David Capitanchik said today’s explosions in London may have been “amateurish” devices aimed at emergency services who arrive at the scene.

Professor Capitanchik from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen said eyewitness reports of small explosions in a rucksack could indicate that they were not intended to explode properly until they had been recovered.

“It appears as if the detonators have gone off, but reports indicate a much more amateurish made device than the bombs two weeks ago,” he said.

“It could have been that something went wrong in detonating them, which happens quite a lot.

“However, in other parts of the world which have experienced incidents like July 7 in London, smaller bombs have later been put in places with the hope that they will go off when the police and emergency services examine them.

“This indicates that in today’s situation the police are going to take a great deal of time and exercise great care, as there is a possibility that these bombs are intended to entrap police and emergency workers.”

He added that if undetonated bombs had been recovered it could be helpful for investigators.

“They will be able to say what they have used in the devices and how they have been made,” he said.