British police seek breakthrough with arrest of 'bomber'

LONDON, Thursday (Reuters) British police hope the first arrest of a suspected bomber since two waves of attacks on London's transport system may provide a breakthrough in the hunt for three other suspects whom they warn could attack again.

Detectives were questioning Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, who they say planted a bomb on an underground train last week.

"We are still looking for the other three men ... Until these men are arrested they remain a threat," London's anti-terrorist police chief Peter Clarke told reporters on Wednesday.

Botched bombings on three underground trains and a bus in London on July 21 followed suicide attacks on July 7 in which 52 people were killed on the British capital's transport network. Police linked the first attack to al Qaeda.

The U.S. television channel ABC, quoting unidentified investigation sources, said detectives probing the July 7 bombings had found 16 bombs in a car rented by one of the attackers.

Pictures of the devices showed bottles studded with nails to act as shrapnel.

A majority of Britons fear their country could be targeted in a sustained campaign by Islamist militants, opinion polls show.

Omar, who came to Britain from Somalia as a child refugee, was being sought over an attempted attack at London's Warren Street underground station on July 21.

Armed police used a stun gun when they arrested him in a dawn raid on a house in the central English city of Birmingham on Wednesday.

Police had faced calls to exercise more caution after they shot dead Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in London on Friday after mistaking him for a suicide bomber.

Newspapers quoted unidentified security sources as saying police thought Omar may have had a bomb in a rucksack he had in the house but were under orders to capture him alive.

"He is much more useful alive than dead," the Sun tabloid quoted one security source as saying. "(It was) partly because of the tragedy with the Brazilian who was killed and partly because his intelligence will be vital."

Andrew Wilkinson, who witnessed the arrest, told the Daily Mirror: "We heard an almighty crashing sound and saw the road full of cops (police). A few minutes later they brought out a guy in a plastic suit."

Security analysts said specially trained police would adopt a "softly, softly approach" when questioning Omar.

"It is not like the movies," an unnamed senior detective told the Times newspaper. "There is no point leaning across the table shouting and gesticulating.

The first step is to try to get his explanation."

A former London anti-terrorism police officer, Charles Shoebridge, said suspects might be told that by helping police they could get a reduced jail sentence if they were convicted.

"A suicide bomber (might be) very willing to die ... but the prospect of 30 to 40 years in prison might be somewhat more intimidating," Shoebridge told the BBC.

On another day of fast-moving developments, three other men were detained at another address in the Birmingham area and houses were searched across London. Police said they arrested three women in a raid in south London on suspicion of harbouring suspects. Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed the Birmingham arrests, saying he was "greatly heartened".