18-year-old charged with London Tube terror attack

An 18-year-old man was on Friday charged with attempted murder and causing an explosion in a terror attack on a London Underground train with a 'bucket bomb' last week which left 30 people injured.

Ahmed Hassan, believed to be of Middle-Eastern origin, was named by Scotland Yard as officers produced him before Westminster Magistrates' Court in London.

He was remanded in custody and is due to appear at the Old Bailey on October 13.

A homemade bomb partially exploded in a train at Parsons Green station in west London, injuring 30 people during rush hour on September 15.

Scotland Yard chief Cressida Dick said the bomb planted on the London Tube was dangerous and it was a relief that no one was killed.

"That was a very, very dangerous bomb, it partially detonated but it had a large quantity of explosives and it was packed with shrapnel. It could have been so much worse," she was quoted as saying by BBC.

The Met Police Commissioner also revealed that her team and the UK's security services had foiled six terror attacks in recent months, some of them minutes away from taking place.

"Ahmed Hassan, 18, of Sunbury, Surrey, has been charged with the attempted murder of persons travelling on a District Line Train from Wimbledon, contrary to Section 1(1) Criminal Attempts Act 1981," the Metropolitan Police said.

The police also revealed the explosive used by the prime suspect in the terror attack as triacetone triperoxide (TATP), similar to ingredients used in some of the previous terror attacks in Europe such Paris in November 2015.

"On September 15 within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court maliciously caused by triacetone triperoxide (TATP) or other explosive substance an explosion of a nature likely to endanger life or to cause serious injury to property, contrary to Section 2 Explosive Substances Act 1883," the Met said in reference to the second charge against Hassan.

The teenager charged has been in custody since he was arrested in the port town of Dover in Kent last Saturday in a joint operation by Kent Police and Scotland Yard.

Three other unnamed men aged 25, 30 and 17 remain in custody under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act in connection with the investigation, which is being carried out by officers from the Met's Counter-Terrorism Command.

Two other men aged 48 and 21 were released from police custody yesterday with no further action.

The 21-year-old was named locally as Syrian refugee Yahyah Faroukh, who was arrested from a chicken shop in Hounslow, west London.

The owner of the shop, Aladdin's, said his business has since been the target of abuse as Faroukh was one of his employees.

The Met said that searches remain ongoing at one address in Surrey and two in Newport, Wales.

All other searches have now been completed.

Thirty people were injured last Friday when a bomb partially exploded on a rush-hour Tube train in south west London.

The Met's Counter-Terrorism Command has since been leading a UK-wide operation to identify those behind the latest terror attack to hit the British capital.