London police have confirmed the arrest of a Somali-born man suspected of trying to blow up a subway train last week. Police are still seeking three other men wanted in attempted bombings of the city's transit system.
The chief of the London police anti-terrorist branch, Peter Clarke, says bomb suspect Yasin Hassan Omar was among four men arrested in police raids on two homes in the central English city of Birmingham early Wednesday.
"I can confirm that one of the men who has been arrested in Birmingham is Yasin Hassan Omar," he said. "He was in a house in Heybarnes Road, Hay Mills, Birmingham and he was arrested at about 4:30 a.m. this morning. He was alone in the house at the time of his arrest. During the course of that arrest, officers did find it necessary to use a Taser weapon to control him. He has now been taken to a central London police station where he will be questioned by detectives from the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch."
About 100 residences in Birmingham were evacuated when authorities thought they found a suspicious bag in a home where Yasin Hassan Omar was arrested. Mr. Clarke says the evacuation was a precaution, and there was no intelligence to suggest that there were explosives in the house.
Yasin Hassan Omar is suspected of planting a bomb that failed to detonate on the London subway's Victoria Line near the Warren Street station.
Authorities say he is a 24-year-old man of Somali origin who got refugee status as a child in Britain in 1992. He was later granted a residency permit and was receiving a state housing subsidy.
The other three men arrested in Birmingham are in the custody of local police and are understood to not have had a direct role in the attempted bombing last Thursday to three London subway trains and a bus.
Police continue to search for three men photographed on the transit system who are believed to have planted bombs that also failed to detonate.
One of the fugitives has been identified as Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, who is originally from Eritrea but who now holds British citizenship. British media are reporting that police believe he has fled to Belgium.
The two other suspects have not been named, though police have released their photographs. Authorities say it is urgent that all three fugitives be captured as they may be planning other attempted suicide attacks.
Britain has been on high alert since July 7, when four British Muslim suicide bombers blew up three subway trains and a bus, killing 52 passengers and wounding some 700 others.
