18-year-old man charged with London tube terror attack

An 18-year-old man was on Friday charged with attempted murder and causing an explosion in a terror attack on a London Underground train with a ‘bucket bomb’ last week which left 30 people injured.

Ahmed Hassan, believed to be of Middle Eastern origin, was named by Scotland Yard as officers produced him before Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

The Metropolitan Police said the explosive used by the prime suspect in the terror attack was triacetone triperoxide, similar to ingredients used in some of the previous terror attacks in Europe, such as in Paris in November 2015.

“On September 15, 2017 within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court maliciously caused by triacetone triperoxide or other explosive substance an explosion of a nature likely to endanger life or to cause serious injury to property, contrary to Section 2 Explosive Substances Act 1883,” the Met said in reference to the second charge against Hassan.

The teenager has been in custody since he was arrested in the port town of Dover in Kent last Saturday, in a joint operation by Kent Police and Scotland Yard.

Three other unnamed men – aged 25, 30 and 17 – remain in custody in connection with the investigation, which is being carried out by officers from the Met’s Counter-Terrorism Command.

Two other men -- aged 48 and 21 -- were released from police custody on Thursday with no further action.

The Met said that searches remain ongoing at one address in Surrey and two in Newport, Wales.

All other searches have now been completed.

Thirty people were injured last Friday when a bomb partially exploded on a rush-hour Tube train in south west London.

The Met’s Counter-Terrorism Command has since been leading a UK-wide operation to identify those behind the latest terror attack to hit the British capital.