Terror threat lowered to severe after bomb attack

The police have  arrested a second man over the bombing of a London commuter train on Friday that injured 30 people and the security services lowered the threat level for an attack from its highest setting.The 21-year-old man was detained under Britain’s terrorism laws in the west London suburb of Hounslow just before midnight on Saturday, London police said in a statement.Police earlier arrested an 18-year-old man in the departure lounge of Dover port in what they called a “significant” step and then raided a property in Sunbury-on-Thames, a town near London and about 6km from Hounslow.The home-made bomb shot flames through a packed carriage at west London’s Parsons Green Tube station during the Friday morning rush hour but apparently failed to detonate fully.Islamic State claimed responsibility, as it has for other attacks in Britain this year, including two in London and one at a concert by American singer Ariana Grande in Manchester in May.Police yesterday said they were searching a home in Stanwell in the county of Surrey near the perimeter of London’s Heathrow Airport, in connection with the Hounslow arrest.Police continued to search the house in Sunbury nearby but said there were no safety risks to local residents.Local media said the home belongs to a couple who have fostered hundreds of children, including refugees.The BBC said the couple, 88-year-old Ronald Jones and Penelope Jones, 71, had been honoured by Queen Elizabeth for their work with children.The bomb struck as passengers were travelling towards the centre of the capital. Some suffered burns and others were hurt in a stampede to escape.Prime Minister Theresa May put Britain on its highest security level late on Friday and soldiers and armed police were deployed to strategic locations such as nuclear power plants.On Saturday, armed police patrolled the streets near government departments in Westminster and guarded Premier League soccer grounds hosting matches.The last time Britain was put on “critical” alert was after a suicide bomber killed 22 people at the Ariana Grande concert.Meanwhile, Interior Minister Amber Rudd yesterday said the second arrest showed it was not a lone-wolf attack but there was no evidence Islamic State was involved.She said the threat level had been lowered to “severe” from “critical”, meaning another attack was highly likely rather than expected imminently.“It is inevitable that so-called Islamic State, or Daesh, will reach in and try to claim responsibility. We have no evidence to suggest that yet,” Rudd told the BBC.“The Joint Terrorist Analysis Centre, which reviews the threat level that the UK is under, have decided to lower that level from critical to severe,” Rudd said in a televised statement.“Severe still means that an attack is highly likely so I would urge everybody to continue to be vigilant but not alarmed,” Rudd said.Soldiers who had been deployed to guard key sites across the country in order to free up police officers on the streets “will return to their original positions” during the next few days, Rudd said.The critical warning had last been used after the deadly suicide bombing at a pop concert in the northwestern city of Manchester in May, for which IS also claimed responsibility.But Rudd voiced doubt over the IS claim that it was behind Friday’s bombing.“It is inevitable that so-called Islamic State or Daesh will try to claim responsibility but we have no evidence to suggest that yet,” she told the BBC.Rudd had earlier dismissed as “pure speculation” US President Donald Trump’s claim, made Friday on Twitter, that a “loser terrorist” behind the attack was known to Scotland Yard.The tweet had already drawn a terse rebuke from Prime Minister Theresa May, who said: “I never think it’s helpful for anybody to speculate on what is an ongoing investigation.”In another security scare on Sunday, a London-bound British Airways flight was evacuated at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport after a false bomb alert.