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Flaming Car Rams Glasgow, Scotland Airport Main Terminal | 2 Arrests
Made
Jun 30, 12:44 PM (ET)
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070630/D8Q38HGO0.html
By IAN STEWART
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) - Two men rammed a flaming sport utility
vehicle into the main terminal of Glasgow airport Saturday, crashing
into the glass doors at the entrance and sparking a fire, witnesses
said. Police said two suspects were arrested.
The airport - Scotland's largest - was evacuated and all flights
suspended, a day after British police thwarted a plot to bomb central
London, discovering two cars abandoned with loads of gasoline, gas
canisters and nails.
"One has to conclude ... these are linked," Dame Pauline Neville-
Jones, former head of Britain's joint intelligence committee, told Sky
News. "This is a very young government, and we may yet see further
attacks."
Britain's prime minister, Gordon Brown, who took office only
Wednesday, was being briefed on developments by his officials, Downing
Street said.
In Glasgow, the green SUV barreled toward the building at full speed
shortly after 3 p.m., hitting security barriers before crashing into
the glass doors and exploding, witnesses said. Two men jumped out of
the burning vehicle, one of them engulfed in flames, they said.
"The car came speeding past at about 30 mph. It was approaching the
building quickly," said Scott Leeson, who was nearby at the time.
"Then the driver swerved the car around so he could ram straight in to
the door. He must have been trying to smash straight through."
Two men were arrested, Strathclyde Police spokeswoman Lisa O'Neil
said.
Passengers fled running and screaming from the busy terminal, Margaret
Hughes told the British Broadcasting Corp. "There was black smoke
gushing out where the car had obviously been driven into the airport,"
she said.
Flames and black smoke rose from the vehicle outside the main
entrance. Police said it was unclear if anyone was injured. Other
passengers were stranded, with at least one airplane grounded on the
runway, the BBC said.
The incident also comes exactly one week before the second anniversary
of the July 7 bombings that killed 52 people.
Leeson said bollards - security posts outside the entrance - stopped
the driver from barreling into the bustling terminal at Glasgow's
airport.
"He's trying to get through the main door frame but the bollards have
stopped him from going through. If he'd got through, he'd have killed
hundreds, obviously," he said.
Leeson said only the nose of the vehicle made it inside the building.
Richard Grey told the BBC that the vehicle was lodged into the center
of the terminal's main entrance.
"The jeep is completely on fire and it exploded not long after. It
exploded at the entrance to the terminal," witness Stephen Clarkson
told the BBC. "It may have been an explosion of petrol in the tank
because it was not a massive explosion."
Two men - one of them engulfed in flames - were in the SUV, witnesses
told BBC News executive Helen Boaden, who was at the airport at time.
She described the men as South Asian.
Clarkson described him as a large South Asian man. "His whole body was
on fire.... He was just talking gibberish," he told the BBC.
"An Asian guy had been pulled out of the car by two police officers he
was trying to fight off and they'd got him on the floor," Grey told
the BBC.
Boaden said police "wrestled him to the ground - the fire was burning
through his clothes - and finally put him out with a fire
extinguisher."
Lesson said an airport officials did not think the incident was an
accident.
"He said the men in the car got out and started throwing petrol about
- that must be how it caught fire," he said.
Another witness, Fiona Tracey, described a "bang" coming from the SUV.
The vehicle was on fire and "every now and again there was a bang
coming off it. ... There was definitely a bang," she told Sky News
television.
Grey said the car did not explode. "There were a few pops and bangs
that seemed to be the tires and the petrol."
Made
Jun 30, 12:44 PM (ET)
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070630/D8Q38HGO0.html
By IAN STEWART
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) - Two men rammed a flaming sport utility
vehicle into the main terminal of Glasgow airport Saturday, crashing
into the glass doors at the entrance and sparking a fire, witnesses
said. Police said two suspects were arrested.
The airport - Scotland's largest - was evacuated and all flights
suspended, a day after British police thwarted a plot to bomb central
London, discovering two cars abandoned with loads of gasoline, gas
canisters and nails.
"One has to conclude ... these are linked," Dame Pauline Neville-
Jones, former head of Britain's joint intelligence committee, told Sky
News. "This is a very young government, and we may yet see further
attacks."
Britain's prime minister, Gordon Brown, who took office only
Wednesday, was being briefed on developments by his officials, Downing
Street said.
In Glasgow, the green SUV barreled toward the building at full speed
shortly after 3 p.m., hitting security barriers before crashing into
the glass doors and exploding, witnesses said. Two men jumped out of
the burning vehicle, one of them engulfed in flames, they said.
"The car came speeding past at about 30 mph. It was approaching the
building quickly," said Scott Leeson, who was nearby at the time.
"Then the driver swerved the car around so he could ram straight in to
the door. He must have been trying to smash straight through."
Two men were arrested, Strathclyde Police spokeswoman Lisa O'Neil
said.
Passengers fled running and screaming from the busy terminal, Margaret
Hughes told the British Broadcasting Corp. "There was black smoke
gushing out where the car had obviously been driven into the airport,"
she said.
Flames and black smoke rose from the vehicle outside the main
entrance. Police said it was unclear if anyone was injured. Other
passengers were stranded, with at least one airplane grounded on the
runway, the BBC said.
The incident also comes exactly one week before the second anniversary
of the July 7 bombings that killed 52 people.
Leeson said bollards - security posts outside the entrance - stopped
the driver from barreling into the bustling terminal at Glasgow's
airport.
"He's trying to get through the main door frame but the bollards have
stopped him from going through. If he'd got through, he'd have killed
hundreds, obviously," he said.
Leeson said only the nose of the vehicle made it inside the building.
Richard Grey told the BBC that the vehicle was lodged into the center
of the terminal's main entrance.
"The jeep is completely on fire and it exploded not long after. It
exploded at the entrance to the terminal," witness Stephen Clarkson
told the BBC. "It may have been an explosion of petrol in the tank
because it was not a massive explosion."
Two men - one of them engulfed in flames - were in the SUV, witnesses
told BBC News executive Helen Boaden, who was at the airport at time.
She described the men as South Asian.
Clarkson described him as a large South Asian man. "His whole body was
on fire.... He was just talking gibberish," he told the BBC.
"An Asian guy had been pulled out of the car by two police officers he
was trying to fight off and they'd got him on the floor," Grey told
the BBC.
Boaden said police "wrestled him to the ground - the fire was burning
through his clothes - and finally put him out with a fire
extinguisher."
Lesson said an airport officials did not think the incident was an
accident.
"He said the men in the car got out and started throwing petrol about
- that must be how it caught fire," he said.
Another witness, Fiona Tracey, described a "bang" coming from the SUV.
The vehicle was on fire and "every now and again there was a bang
coming off it. ... There was definitely a bang," she told Sky News
television.
Grey said the car did not explode. "There were a few pops and bangs
that seemed to be the tires and the petrol."
