British police foil underground bomb plot: media

British media said on late Friday that police had uncovered a terror plot targeting the London underground as a 19-year-old man planning the bomb attack was arrested.

Xinhua news agency quoted the Daily Telegraph as saying that the young man was arrested by counter-terrorism officers on Friday, one day after the suspect device was found on board a train in London.

The newspaper quoted a note from the government department to its personnel as saying that it remains possible that the perpetrator may attempt to place further devices.

The British Home Office and Ministry of Defence (MOD) have not published any statement on its website over the issue and have not replied to inquiry messages from Xinhua.

The report said that the country's security officials had contacted the MOD after the discovery "to warn serving military personnel, and the threat level for transport in London had been raised to severe to reflect an attack was highly likely".

The foiled terrorism attack plot came 11 years after the bombings when the London transport network was targeted in a terror attack that killed 52.

--IANS

lok/