Londoners deal with new reality

Ned Colt Correspondent • Profile

LONDON - A day after the second attack on London's transportation system in two weeks, the city was on high alert Friday. 

NBC News Ned Colt discusses the tense mood in London and how people are coping with what now appears to be an ongoing threat.

The Metropolitan Police held a news conference this morning and released images of suspects in Thursday’s bombings — how quickly are they getting these images out? Are they plastering them around the city?
They are already on television and that’s going to be a big plus in terms of trying to track them down. I haven’t seen the pictures myself, but I’ve been told that they are close-ups, and if you knew the individuals, you’d be able to tell who they were.

So these closed-circuit cameras, which were so controversial when they started putting them into place, and now there are as many as 20,000 across London, are clearly serving a positive purpose and having a very positive effect, without any question.

Within in 24 hours of these bombings, they’ve been able to come up with images of these four suspects, thanks to the closed circuit cameras.

A man walking in the subway this morning was shot and killed by police. Is that sort of a reflection of the panic mode in London at the moment?
I think that it’s premature to suggest that. There are conflicting reports, as there always are with a variety of witnesses in a situation that is so explosive.

We’ve heard that anywhere from five to 10 shots were fired, that this individual had been on the train car for a short time and acted very nervous. He was described as a young south Asian looking man, dressed in a heavy black overcoat. That is something that at this time of year, when it is about 70 degrees Fahrenheit in London, it doesn’t seem to be something that one would normally need. Whether he has any connection to yesterday’s bombings is still unclear.

They say that apparently there was a very brief scuffle on board one of the subway cars with him and three or four police. What we’re hearing is that there were five shots, apparently to the head. That would not be surprising, given that they would not want to shoot him in the body if there was any concern about him possibly carrying explosives.

How rare is it that incidents like that — of police shooting possible suspects — happen there. Unfortunately, we seem more accustomed to that sort of thing here in the U.S., but how rare is it in the U.K.?
Here it is a very unusual situation when police fire weapons. It just shows where London is right now and the concern they’ve got about these continuing attacks on the transportation system here.

I believe that after the deadly bombing of two weeks ago, that the police were given clearance to use deadly force against terror suspects if there is a perceived threat. Clearly, the police are saying that there was a perceived threat today here at the Stockton Underground station.  

The bombs that were detonated yesterday but did not explode were said to be fairly “amateurish.” Is there a fear that the July 7 attacks will now lead to a series of “copy-cat” attacks?
There are a number of possible motivations for who may have been behind this — they may have been involved in the original attacks. We are not hearing anything specific or definitive about that at this point.

But, it does appear that, yes, these were not the most sophisticated bombers or bombs because all four only partially detonated. Yet we are being told by police that they were highly explosive and were capable of doing a lot of damage, had they gone off the way they were intended to.

Clearly, what was very different from two weeks ago was that this was a more amateurish operation. Also the fact that the four had no intention, apparently, of being martyrs to their cause and being suicide bombers, as opposed to those involved in the attacks two weeks ago.  

There is no doubt that the police are looking at possible links because it would help them to track down who was involved in the bombings of two weeks ago and find out if there are more cells operating in London. But they can do that very well with the information they have now. They have a number of these explosives and are no doubt checking for DNA, fingerprints and listening to witness statements from those who saw these men before they fled.

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