Fox is reporting no trace of chemical agents found. Police confirm explosions on three subways and a bus. There are reports that only the detonators exploded, not the bombs. A man was lead away from 10 Downing Street by police. University Hospital near Warren St. subway was in lockdown after a suspicious man wearing a sweatshirt with wires sticking from it was spotted. From IrelandOnline:
Terrified Tube passengers were evacuated from trains today as police dealt with “incidents” at three different London Underground stations.
Emergency services were also called to a bus in east London amid reports there was a device on board.
Passengers evacuated from Warren Street Tube station reported seeing smoke in the carriages before the evacuation.
There were also unconfirmed reports of an explosion.
A British Transport Police spokesman said: “One person has received an injury at Warren Street. We cannot confirm what the injury is, how it was received or who serious it is. We are still waiting for more information.”
Sosiane Mohellavi, 35, was travelling from Oxford Circus to Walthamstow when she was evacuated from a train at Warren Street.
“I was sitting in the carriage reading a book and I smelt something burning, like wiring or tyres, and it just got more intense. Suddenly people panicked and started screaming and were walking on each other’s backs trying to get the hell out of there.
“I couldn’t move, I didn’t know what to do, whether to run or not. People ran and left their shoes and belongings when they smelt the burning,” Mr Mohellavi said.
A British Transport Police spokeswoman said Warren Street, Shepherds Bush and Oval stations had all been evacuated.
She said the incidents were “ongoing”.
Underground services were suspended as the alert spread.
London fire brigade said there were reports of smoke coming from Oval station, which crews were investigating.
A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: “Emergency services personnel are responding to reports of incidents at three locations on the Underground — the Oval, Warren Street and Shepherd’s Bush.”
Victoria Line passenger Ivan McCracken claimed a traveller’s rucksack had exploded on the Tube outside Warren Street station.
He told Sky News: “I was in a middle carriage and the train was not far short of Warren Street station when suddenly the door between my carriage and the next one burst open and dozens of people started rushing through. Some were falling, there was mass panic.
“It was difficult to get the story from any of them what had happened but when I got to ground level there was an Italian young man comforting an Italian girl who told me he had seen what had happened.
“He said that a man was carrying a rucksack and the rucksack suddenly exploded. It was a minor explosion but enough to blow open the rucksack.
“The man then made an exclamation as if something had gone wrong. At that point everyone rushed from the carriage.”…
Update from Bloomberg:
…One person was injured in the incidents, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair said in an interview aired by Sky News. One device may have exploded while three others failed to go off properly, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.
“We’ve just got to react calmly and continue with our business,” U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair said at a press conference at his Downing Street office. “We know why these things are done. They’re done to frighten people.”
The incidents today occurred simultaneously and at the four points of the compass, in a pattern resembling the July 7 terrorist attacks that killed 56 people. Today, Warren Street, Oval and Shepherds Bush Underground stations and a bus in east London were evacuated. Eyewitnesses told Sky that smoke appeared from a rucksack carried by a passenger in one subway carriage.
“There is nothing to indicate any kind of attack that involves chemicals or anything else,” said Ian Blair of the police. “It’s broadly conventional. The situation is absolutely at the moment under control.”
The driver of the number 26 bus in Hackney, east London, heard a bang from the upper deck of the vehicle and said the windows were blown out, according to Steve Stewart, a spokesman for Stagecoach Plc, which operates public transport services. The bus is intact and there are no injuries, he said. The BBC said a split backpack was left on the floor of a bus.
“There was a nasty burning rubber smell but no smoke,” Caroline Russell, who was traveling on the subway at Warren Street, told the BBC in an interview today.
Police also cordoned off University College Hospital in central London today and sent an “armed response” unit there, police spokesman Steve Sherwood said in an interview. A memo was distributed to hospital employees indicating a suspect in the Warren Street incident had been spotted nearby, Sky News reported. He was described as being black or Asian wearing a blue shirt with wires protruding from the top, Sky said. The incident there was later “stood down,” police said…