via The Associated Press
Newsday
Copyright 2007 Newsday, Inc.
GLASGOW, Scotland — A Jeep Cherokee rammed into Glasgow’'s airport yesterday, shattering glass doors and bursting into flames just yards from passengers at the check-in counters. Police said they believed the attack was linked to two car bombs found in London the day before.
Britain raised its terror alert to “critical” - the highest possible level - and the Bush administration announced plans to increase security at airports and on mass transit.
One of the men in the car was in critical condition at a hospital with severe burns and the other was in police custody, said Scottish Police Chief Constable Willie Rae. Five bystanders were hurt, although none seriously, police said.
Rae said a “suspect device” was found on the man at the hospital and was taken to a safe location where it was being investigated. British security officials said evidence pointed to the attack being a suicide mission.
Police later arrested two more suspects in the London and Glasgow plots in Cheshire County in northern England. “I can confirm that we believe the incident at Glasgow airport is linked to the events in London yesterday,” Rae said at a news conference. “There are clearly similarities and we can confirm that this is being treated as a terrorist incident.”
A British government security official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the methods used in Glasgow and London were similar, with all three vehicles carrying large quantities of flammable liquid. Police and MI5 had no specific intelligence warning of a plan to attack Scotland, but they have monitored a host of suspected terrorists and plots there, he said. It was not clear whether there was an international element to the planning or funding of the attacks, he said.
The new terror threat presents Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a Scot who took office Wednesday, with an enormous challenge and comes at a time of already heightened vigilance one week before the second anniversary of the July 7 London transit attacks, which killed 52 people.
“I know that the British people will stand together, united, resolute and strong,” Brown said in a televised statement.
The green Jeep barreled toward the main airport terminal shortly after 3 p.m. One witness, Scott Leeson, said bollards - security posts outside the entrance - stopped the car from entering the bustling terminal, but the nose of the vehicle smashed the glass doors. “If he’'d got through, he’'d have killed hundreds, obviously,” Leeson said.
Lynsey McBean, another witness, said the driver kept trying to push the car forward after it got stuck, and “the wheels were spinning and smoke was coming from them.” She said one occupant then took out a plastic gasoline canister and poured a liquid under the car. “He then set light to it,” said McBean, 26, from Erskine, Scotland.
Police subdued the driver and a passenger, both described by witnesses as South Asian - a term used to refer to people from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries in the region.
Witnesses said one of the men was engulfed in flames as an official used a fire extinguisher to douse the fire.
The airport was evacuated and all flights suspended. Police said Liverpool Airport and roads around Edinburgh also were closed.
The attack left passengers shaken and stranded on the first day of summer vacation for Glasgow schools. At the time of the crash, the airport was bustling with families heading out on vacation.
Airport attack
Two men were arrested yesterday after allegedly ramming their car into the entrance of Glasgow International Airport in Scotland, then setting fire to the vehicle.
- At about 3:15 p.m. local time (10:15 Eastern), a Jeep Cherokee speeds down terminal road at about 30 mph.
- Driver turns around to approach terminal head-on.
- Driver barrels into main entrance of terminal, hitting a series of security barriers before striking glass doors.
- One man reportedly takes out a plastic gasoline container and pours a liquid under the car lights it.
- Both men are arrested at the scene.
SOURCES: British Airports Authority; News Reports
A timeline of events in London and Glasgow, Scotland:
- Friday, 1:25 A.M. London Ambulance Service called to Tiger Tiger nightclub in central London to treat a patron who had injured his head in a fall. Arriving at Haymarket Street, the ambulance crew spots smoke coming from a metallic green Mercedes in front of the nightclub.
- Shortly before 2 A.M. Police bomb squad arrives and discovers that the car is packed with gasoline, nails, gas cylinders and a detonator. Squad defuses the explosives.
- About 2:30 A.M. Blue Mercedes parked illegally on Cockspur Street, which runs between Haymarket and Trafalgar Square, is ticketed, then towed an hour later to impound lot on Park Lane along Hyde Park’'s eastern edge.
- Midmorning. Police close Park Lane to investigate blue Mercedes after attendants at impound lot report smelling gasoline.
- 9 P.M. Police say blue Mercedes contained similar explosives materials as green Mercedes.
- Yesterday, 3:15 P.M. Two men ram a flaming Jeep Cherokee into the main entrance at Glasgow’'s airport. One suspect taken to the hospital.