July 09, 2005

Birmingham Entertainment District Evacuated After Terror Threats

Jeff Quinton has news that the entertainment district in Birmingham, England has been evacuated due to terrorism threats. A sad fact that after a big terrorist attack, which 7/7 was, is that there are other terror threats issued in the aftermath.

British Broadcasting Corp. television reported that police had carried out several controlled explosions, a precaution to disarm objects suspected of being explosive devices. (source)

Jeff Goldstein reports that 30,000 people were evacuated which gives credence to the threat having enough legitimacy to evacuate such a large population. With detonated items, this can mean there was explosive material found or the threats were deemed legitimate enough and specific enough to conclude bombs may be found in certain items.

The London Times reports London police are concerned that terrorists might strike again tonight. Investigators are convinced only one of the bombers of 7/7 was killed, the possible suicide bomber in the double decker bus, and that other still remain in England. As with every investigation however, there are multitudes of people connected and if this was the work of Al Qaida or an Al Qaida linked group, the connections will be numerous.

Update:
Bongo Vongo, who lives in Birmingham, has some in depth reports including that a suspicious package on board a bus was detonated by police. California Yankee reports of the response by British officials.

Update:
Via Jeff Quinton comes the police press release.

The bomb disposal squad has carried out 4 controlled explosions on a bus in Corporation Street, near the Square Pegg public house. This turned out to be a false call. The bomb disposal squad are however, still investigating another suspicious package in the Broad Street area.

This appears to be more of a precaution and a false threat than an actual incident to me, and thankfully so.

Cross-posted at ITB. As this story breaks, I will try to update both this post and the post on my site.