SEVERAL people were injured on Friday after witnesses reported there had been a blast on a packed rush-hour commuter train in London and police said they were treating it as a terrorism incident.
Passengers on board a train heading into the capital fled as fire engulfed a carriage at Parsons Green underground station in West London at 8.20 a.m. (0720 GMT), with some suffering burns and other injuries in a stampede to escape, witnesses said.
The London ambulance service said it had taken 18 people to hospital, but said none were thought to be in a serious condition.
Neil Basu, the senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, declared it a terrorist incident. Prime Minister Theresa May will chair a meeting of Britain’s emergency response committee later on Friday, her office said.
“It is too early to confirm the cause of the fire, which will be subject to the investigation that is now underway by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command,” London police said in a statement.
Pictures taken at the scene showed a white bucket with a supermarket freezer bag on the floor of one train carriage. The bucket was in flames and there appeared to be wires coming out of the top.
“I was on second carriage from the back. I just heard a kind of whoosh. I looked up and saw the whole carriage engulfed in flames making its way toward me,” Ola Fayankinnu, who was on the train, told Reuters.
