A British court sentenced a 20-year-old student to 15 years in prison for terrorism on Friday after he was convicted of placing a home-made bomb on the London underground last year.
Police and prosecutors said Damon Smith left the bomb, which was packed with explosives and ball bearings, on an underground train in October after he had followed bomb-making instructions from an al-Qaeda magazine.
The bomb failed to detonate and was found by passengers as the train travelled through south-east London on the Jubilee Line.
The train was held at North Greenwich underground station, which was evacuated while specialist officers carried out a controlled explosion.
‘We have seen this week the horrifying impact a bomb can have,’ Commander Dean Haydon, head of counter-terrorism for London's Metroplitan Police, said in a statement following the sentencing.
‘And whilst there is no connection between Manchester and Greenwich, it brings into stark reality just how devastating it could have been,’ Haydon said.
‘The bomb Smith made was a viable device, but it failed to detonate, which was our good fortune.’
‘Although he claimed this was a prank, the bomb he left on the train was clearly designed to cause horrific injuries,’ Sue Hemming of the Crown Prosecution Service said after Smith was convicted earlier this month.
The police said they found a ‘shopping list’ of bomb-making materials on an iPad at Smith's home in London, as well as components for making a bomb.