Parsons Green: Underground blast a terror incident

An "improvised explosive device" was detonated on a Tube train in south-west London during Friday's morning rush hour, injuring 29 people.
The blast, at Parsons Green station on a District Line train from Wimbledon, is being treated as terrorism.
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I feel a bit irritated by the media's constant description of the train as being "tube". The London Underground has two networks. The 'Tube' network is the restricted size trains that travel in the narrow tunnels. But the train in this incident was on the full size network of District line trains.

It looks as though the incident could have been much worse but for the incompetence of the bomb maker, for which we should be grateful. The bomb did not explode but 'merely' caught fire. Several people were burned but the bomb planter presumably intended it to explode and kill lots of people.

The latest news is that a person has been arrested at Dover, presumably trying to leave the country. He is claimed to have been the person who planted the explosive device.

The train is one of the newest designs, having no barriers between carriages so that the passenger space fills the whole length of the train.

george matthews wrote:I feel a bit irritated by the media's constant description of the train as being "tube". The London Underground has two networks. The 'Tube' network is the restricted size trains that travel in the narrow tunnels. But the train in this incident was on the full size network of District line trains.

It appears to be a lost cause. The Underground's own people have been quoted in the press using "tube" to denote any of the lines, as do a lot of Londoners. I've read that from the very beginning the directors of the Baker Street and Waterloo tried their best to get the public NOT to call it the Bakerloo. No luck with that either.

At least one other person has been arrested. But so far there is still little news about the progress of the police investigation.

There is always worry about the whole public transport system. One suspects that terrorists often consider it a useful target for their malign intents.

Meanwhile, an average of 5 people per day die on British Roads. I don't wish to minimize the terrorist threat , but your actual chance of been directly killed by one are a lot lower than the chances of been killed on a road.
The irony is many people may change from rail to road because of this incident.

David Benton wrote:Meanwhile, an average of 5 people per day die on British Roads. I don't wish to minimize the terrorist threat , but your actual chance of been directly killed by one are a lot lower than the chances of been killed on a road

This may be of interest: Is it possible to protect a public transport system from terror?

But you're right that only a handful of people are killed or seriously injured in "terrorist" attacks in the western world, while thousands are being killed by the same "terrorist" groups in the developing world.

The man arrested at Dover appeared in magistrates' court on Friday. He was remanded in custody.

Several other people have been arrested as the police follow up connections.