LONDON (Reuters) – Timers, not suicide bombers, set off the four blasts on the London underground and a bus that killed at least 37 people on Thursday, the New York Times reported on Friday.
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The newspaper also cited unnamed U.S. and British officials as saying the device which tore the top off a double-decker bus might have exploded prematurely as a bomber was carrying it to another target.
The officials said the three blasts which ripped through underground trains seem to have been caused by package bombs left by attackers who fled and detonated them by timers, not mobile phones or other remote triggers.
The bombs which killed 191 people on trains in Madrid in March 2004 were triggered by mobile phones.
London police said they received no warning of the attacks which the government said bore the hallmarks of the Islamic militant al Qaeda network. London Mayor Ken Livingstone hinted on Wednesday that suicide bombers may have been involved.
ABC News quoted U.S. authorities as saying that London police had recovered key parts of the timing devices that set off the bombs and also said there were reports that police might have found two unexploded bombs on Thursday.
CNN cited U.S. law enforcement sources as saying investigators had found fragments of timing devices that might have been used in the three train blasts, but no such fragments had been found in the bus explosion.
