The Parsons Green bomber used his foster parents’ tupperware and a Tesco Clubcard to make an explosive packed with screwdrivers, nails and knives, a court heard.
Iraqi asylum seeker Ahmed Hassan, 18, allegedly used a ‘student of the year’ prize to buy a key ingredient for the device on Amazon and made it in the kitchen of his foster home in Sunbury, Surrey.
A fireball went down the carriage of the District Line train at Parsons Green leaving passengers needing hospital treatment for burns to the face, legs and hands and singed hair which fell out in clumps.
Ahmed Hassan pictured at 9.41am on board a separate train after he left a bomb on a District line carriage
The jury at the Old Bailey was shown a picture of Hassan’s bedroom door with the word ‘bored’ scribbled several times in black pen.
Inside there was a container of hydrogen peroxide on the top of the wardrobe and an Arsenal towel over the wardrobe door.
Hassan was arrested in Dover on September 16 last year, 24 hours after the attack, wearing a blue Chelsea top under a red and blue striped jumper.
Sarah Wilson, a senior forensic case officer at the Forensic Explosive Laboratory at Fort Halstead in Kent, said the bomb had the potential to kill.
A court heard how Hassan allegedly took the largest Tupperware container, pictured above, from his foster parents’ kitchen to store the 300g of TATP which made up the main charge for the device found in a Lidl bag on the tube
Ms Wilson said triacetone Triperoxide (TATP) is a primary high explosive which is ‘very unstable and very unpredictable and as such is not produced for any commercial or military use.’
Just a few grams could blow someone’s hands and fingers off, she said, and it was sensitive to impact, friction or heat so that it could be set off by hitting or dropping it.
The device ‘has the potential to cause damage to property and or serious harm to persons in close proximity which potentially could be lethal,’ Ms Wilson said.
Shrapnel would be ‘ejected at high speed which would increase the potential for harm,’ she added.
The initiator mechanism, using a kitchen timer, battery and a halogen bulb had functioned but the main charge had failed to function fully.
Deserted: A photograph of the smoke-ridden carriage shortly after the device exploded was shown to a jury today as Hassan is on trial for terrorism offences
Nevertheless, an ‘energetic event’ had happened, ‘something quite violent’, Ms Wilson said, ‘a deflagration, a rapid burn rather than a detonation.’
But the bomb did not fully detonate because Hassan had not dried out the bomb-making chemicals before use, the expert said.
Ms Wilson revealed that forensic tests had found traces of the explosive at the three-bedroom home in Sunbury, Surrey where Hassan, 18, lived with his foster parents.
Traces of TATP were found in a bowl in the sink, on the hob and in the extractor fan in the kitchen.
‘There were 60 nano grams in a bowl in the kitchen sink and in a green bag inside a bin liner, in the hob and the extractor fan in the kitchen,’ the scientist said.
There were also traces of the white crystalline substance in a Tesco carrier bag inside a bin liner in the conservatory and a Tesco Club card in the name Mr A Hassan
A blue vase similar to one used in the bomb detonator was found on the ground outside the conservatory.
There were a number of clear plastic Tupperware containers with blue lids which appeared to be part of a set, on top of the dishwasher in the kitchen.
The largest one was missing and appeared to have been wrapped in foil and used to store the 300g of TATP which made up the main charge for the device found in a Lidl bag on the tube.
In the kitchen drawer were similar knives to ones which had been used as shrapnel in the device and two screwdrivers were missing from a set in the sitting room which had also been used to multiply the deadly effect of the device.
In the conservatory were empty packets of screwdriver socket sets which had also been used in the device, Alison Morgan, prosecuting, said.
Left out on the table in the conservatory was a bottle of acid that Hassan had allegedly used to mix with his chemicals and on the top of the wardrobe was a container of hydrogen peroxide.
The jury was told that the TATP may been too wet and the fireball could have been caused by excess acetone, one of the ingredients.
Hassan spent most of the proceedings bending over so that he could not see the court.
He denies attempted murder and causing an explosion likely to endanger life and the trial continues.
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