bit of a kerfuffle!

[razrif]

Man refuses to answer door when the SAS come to call!
Notting Hill on tele now!

[razrif]

suspected bomber holed up in flat

[razrif]

Suspect arrested at Nottinghill flat
3 of 4 suspected bombers in custody.
LONDON - Heavily armed police wearing gas masks and reportedly using stun grenades raided two west London apartment blocks Friday, and they said they made a number of arrests in their search for suspects in the failed July 21 transit bombings.


Police would not say who was arrested, but British media reported that at least two of the three men still being sought for the failed bombings had been arrested.

That would bring the number of arrests of men tied to the July 21 attacks to about two dozen. Another suspect was arrested in Birmingham on Wednesday.

Sky News broadcast video of two men in light blue body suits designed to preserve evidence leading away a man in a white bodysuit, shielding his face.

A witness told The Associated Press that a man wearing what appeared to be a bus driver's uniform was led out in handcuffs.

The witness, Osama Ahmed Ali, saw a Somali man whom he recognized as a bus driver. "He was in purple and yellow bus driver uniform," said Ali, 16. "I've been on a bus with him a couple of times."

The police operation was carried out in at least two locations in Notting Hill about a quarter-mile apart.

Armed police also arrested two women at Liverpool Street station, located in the central London, and evacuated the area. The women were pinned to the ground in a raid.

One woman is thought to have been in a line for the Stansted Express, which goes to one of London's airports, when she was pushed to the ground by police.

British Transport Police said the operation was carried out by the Metropolitan Police and the site was being searched. Both the train station and the subway station were evacuated.

The two women were arrested at 1:54 p.m., British Transport Police said. The police were searching a number of suspect packages in the station.

Earlier, police were involved in a standoff with at least one man in an apartment, pointing assault weapons and pistols at the home, a witness said. Police wearing black balaclavas and body armor surrounded the building.

"They're asking him to leave the flat. They've been saying this for 25 minutes to half an hour," a witness identified as Lisa Davis told Sky News.

Police went door to door in the chic neighborhood, famous for its weekend street market, and told people to evacuate.

"I heard six loud bangs, which I found out from a policeman were stun grenades I believe, and then I heard two shots," witness Patrick Ball said. "The noise that I heard was an extremely loud bang."

The area is near west London's Little Wormwood Scrubs park, where police on Saturday found a fifth bomb in a dark backpack.

Two small explosions in the area could be heard on video broadcast by Sky News. Helicopters buzzed overhead and police cordoned off a number of streets, and said one person had been arrested. A witness told CNN she saw several people being taken into custody.

On Wednesday, Yasin Hassan Omar, one of the four men suspected of carrying out the July 21 attacks, was arrested in Birmingham in central England. Omar, 24, was being questioned at a top-security police station in London.

Two weeks before the failed July 21 attacks, attacks on three other subway lines and another bus killed 56 people, including four suicide bombers.

Meanwhile, a police watchdog group investigated the killing of a Brazilian electrician, who was shot to death by officers who believed he was a suicide bomber.

Investigators from the Independent Police Complaints Commission appealed for witnesses who were at Stockwell subway station in south London where Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was shot eight times — seven times to the head on July 22.

Menezes' funeral is being held Friday in Gonzaga, Brazil, where he was born. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales will attend a Mass for Menezes at Westminster Cathedral in central London Friday evening.

One of the Tube stations closed after the July 7 attacks reopened Friday. Several bouquets of flowers lay at the entrance to the Edgware Road station in a tribute to the seven people killed there. But passenger numbers were visibly down — a sign of nervousness among Londoners despite a huge police operation to catch the terrorists.

"I felt a bit nervous coming through the tunnel just then and this morning my mum gave me a look as though she was never going to see me again," said commuter Jasmine Chandhoke, 22. "Everyone was being incredibly vigilant on the train, checking each other's bags."

Scotland Yard police headquarters declined to comment on the arrest in Zambia of a British man sought in connection with the July 7 bombings.

British investigators reportedly believe Haroon Rashid Aswat, 31, had been in telephone contact with some of the four suicide attackers who carried out the July 7 attacks.

The British Foreign Office said it was seeking access to a Briton reportedly detained in Zambia but would not identify him.

In Britain, police have 20 people in custody in connection with the July 21 attacks, and as part of what Commissioner Blair has described as "the largest investigation the Met (Metropolitan police) has ever mounted."

Omar is a Somali citizen with British residency suspected of carrying out the failed attack at the Warren Street subway station. He was being questioned at a high security police station in London.

He was arrested Wednesday in a dramatic raid in Birmingham when anti-terrorist officers subdued him with a stun gun.