Man arrested in London bombing inquiry

LONDON - Police have made significant developments in the hunt for those behind last week's London bombings, which killed more than 50 people.

They have arrested one man in an armed raid and are trying to establish whether four men blew themselves up in the explosions in what would be the first suicide attacks in Britain.

"The investigation quite early led us to have concerns about the movements and activities of four men, three of whom came from the West Yorkshire area," said Peter Clarke, head of London Police's anti-terrorist branch.

"We are trying to establish their movements in the run up to last week's attacks and specifically to establish whether they all died in the explosions."

The revelations came on a day of fast-moving developments, with police carrying out six searches in Yorkshire, including at the homes of three of the four suspects. One man was arrested in those raids, Mr Clarke said. He is understood to be a relative of the suspects.

In the city of Leeds, army experts set off a controlled explosion outside one of the houses to give police access. Detectives said the searches were a "significant" part of their probe into the London attacks.

Some 500 people were evacuated from the surrounding streets of red brick terraced houses and a large area of the rundown, racially mixed area of the city was cordoned off.

Mr Clarke said police had found personal documents with the names of three suspects close to the scene of three of last Thursday's blasts, which the government says bear the hallmark of al Qaeda-style Islamist militants.

It was "very likely" that one suspect had died in one of the blasts, at Aldgate underground station, Clarke said.

Suicide bombers have never previously struck in Britain, and police played down the possibility of a suicide attack in the days immediately after the blasts.

Television footage

The four men had travelled to London on the day of the blasts and been captured on closed-circuit television footage wearing rucksacks at King's Cross station shortly before 8.30 am. 

Three bombs exploded within 50 seconds of each other at 8.50am on underground trains which had all passed through King's Cross. A fourth exploded 57 minutes later on a bus not far away.

Mr Clarke said police had found personal documents with the names of three of the men close to the scenes of three blasts.

He said it was very likely that one of the four suspects had died in the explosion at Aldgate station.

Police also seized a vehicle found in a car park at Luton, near London, which they believed was linked to the investigation, Clarke said.

"I have to tell you that this investigation is moving at great speed," he said.

The raids came as frustration was mounting at what many grieving relatives feel is slow progress in formally identifying the victims of the bombings, which killed at least 52 and injured 700.

Leeds, a city of 715,000 people in northern England, has a Muslim population of around 30,000 -- one of the largest in Britain. In May 2001, it was one of a series of northern towns which saw rioting between Asian and white youths blamed on ethnic, religious and racial divisions.

Luton, where police closed streets near the station so they could move the suspect car, also has a large Muslim population.

After a wave of public scorn and indignation, the US Air Force rescinded an order banning its personnel at two air bases in Britain from visiting London in the wake of the bombings.

London police chief Ian Blair had urged the Americans to reverse their decision as British authorities had been urging people to return to work and normality.

- REUTERS