A major theme emerging from the news from London is that alert, well-trained civil servants stopped a major terrorist attack just by showing up and doing their jobs well. An alert ambulance crew and a plain old police officer. Really fantastic news and a great sign for meat & potatoes work in the face of what sometimes seem like invincible enemies.
British police foil major terror plot – Yahoo News
The events unfolded when police were called to Haymarket, south of Piccadilly Circus, after a man fell at the nightclub Tiger Tiger, injuring his head, prompting a call for an ambulance around 1:30 a.m. Friday.When crews arrived, they noticed smoke coming from a green Mercedes parked in front of a club, Clarke said.
Photographs showed a canister bearing the words “patio gas,” indicating it was propane, next to the car. The propane gas is of the type usually used in backyard barbecues and patio heaters. The back door was open with blankets spilling out. The car was removed from the scene after a bomb squad disabled the explosives.
A bomb squad called to the scene manually disabled the explosives.
Sky News television reported that a police officer seized a telephone from the car — believed to have been a potential detonator for the explosives — and an American lawmaker briefed on the investigation confirmed that British authorities found a cell phone.
“They found a cell phone and it was going to be used to detonate the bomb,” said U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.