How 1mm and simple mistakes saved lives

MARIANNE TAYLOR

Published on 17 Dec 2008

Only luck and good fortune stood between the London and Glasgow terrorist car bombers and mass carnage.

Only luck and good fortune stood between the London and Glasgow terrorist car bombers and mass carnage.

Cars laden with gas cylinders and 130 litres of petrol, each sprinkled with up to 1000 2in nails, should have proved a deadly combination.

Experts said fragments of the heavy metal cylinders could have been flung up to half a mile if the bombs exploded.

But ultimately, it was not luck but a simple loose connection that saved hundreds of late-night revellers from death and injury.

Forensic investigators found an overlooked gap of less than 1mm between the phones and detonators broke the initiator circuit in one car.

Officers suspect the men chose not to use hydrogen peroxide because purchases could arouse suspicion and they were unable to obtain other explosives.

One police source said: "If both gas bottles had ignited we would have had a flaming bomb of some great velocity going through plate-glass windows into a nightclub packed with people followed by a trail of flames.

"In a sense, how effective it would have been as a mass casualty device is debatable, but nonetheless it sure as hell would have sent a message in terms of public anxiety and a significant loss of life."

The jury heard how mobile phones were carefully transformed into detonators according to instructions obtained from jihadi websites.

Two unregistered pay-as-you-go handsets, from two different providers, were used in the West End bombs.

The design was inspired by similar bombs used to deadly effect in Madrid, Jerusalem and Bali, as well as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Only one detonator sparked, but even that was snuffed out quickly because the ambitious terrorists had filled the cars with too much petrol and gas.

Experts later found there was hardly any oxygen left inside the cabins, causing the volatile gases to extinguish the flames.

Terror expert Andy Oppenheimer said mobile phone-initiated devices were notoriously unreliable and it took Irish terrorists many years to refine them.

He said: "There is no such thing as a reliable bomb - even with the first atomic bombs no-one knew if they would go off."

However, he warned it is "only a matter of time" before Islamic terrorist perfect such bombs, saying: "As soon as they start joined-up terrorism' then we are in trouble, because they do have the knowledge to make these things.

"These bombs are not that difficult to put together so unfortunately it is a case of keeping on top of intelligence and the availability of materials."