Iraqi asylum seeker Ahmed Hassan (pictured), 18, injured 30 commuters after detonating the device in the packed District Line carriage, the Old Bailey in London heard
The Parsons Green bucket bomber loaded an explosive device with more than 4lbs of nails, screws and knives to cause ‘maximum carnage’ on a rush hour Tube train, a court heard.
Iraqi asylum seeker Ahmed Hassan, 18, injured 30 commuters after detonating the device in a Lidl supermarket bag in the packed District Line carriage, the Old Bailey in London was told.
Hassan, who arrived in the UK illegally on the back of a lorry in 2015, allegedly made the bomb using the explosive triacetate triperoxide (TATP) which was packed into a Tupperware container and glass vase inside the white bucket.
When interviewed by the Home Office when claiming asylum in the UK, he said he was fleeing ISIS – who he claimed kidnapped him, threatened to murder his family, made him train 1,000 soldiers to kill and give religious teachings.
The jury was told that some of the ingredients for the device were bought on Amazon and CCTV captured Hassan buying a drill in Aldi and batteries and a screwdriver set in Asda in Feltham.
Hassan allegedly used an Amazon token he was given after winning a school prize to pay for the chemicals.
Ahmed Hassan pictured allegedly using Tesco wifi to order the hydrogen peroxide in Sunbury. The teenage asylum seeker is accused of planting the Parsons Green Tube bomb
Hassan allegedly used an Amazon token he was given after winning a school prize to pay for the chemicals
Ahmed Hassan on a 216 bus allegedly on his way to pick up the hydrogen peroxide from his friend’s house in Thornton Heat
He was awarded the ‘Student of the Year’ prize at Brooklands College for his study of the Level 3 Diploma in media and creativity.
His prize at college was a £20 Amazon voucher and it was used to purchase hydrogen peroxide, the court heard.
He then allegedly took advantage of his foster parents being on holiday to prepare 14oz of TATP explosives, using a friend’s address to take delivery of the largest ingredient.
The device exploded in a ball of fire as the train pulled into Parsons Green station at 8.20am on September 15 last year, leaving a number of the 93 passengers in the carriage at the time badly burned.
Hassan allegedly made the bomb using the explosive triacetate triperoxide (TATP) which was packed into a Tupperware container and glass vase inside the white bucket
An injured woman is assisted by a police officer close to Parsons Green station in west London after an explosion on a packed London Underground train
Fortunately, the device did not detonate fully, sparing the lives of those nearest the bomb, the court heard.
Commuters told how they faced ‘a furnace engulfed in flames’, with some suffering significant burns, while others were injured in the ‘stampede’ as they fled in fear and panic, the jury was told.
Jelena Semenjuk had noticed a bag on the floor and a man fitting the description of Hassan. She heard a ‘loud bang’ and noticed her coat was on fire, the court heard.
She suffered burns to her legs, hands, and face, causing her eyebrows and lashes to be singed off, the court heard.
Aimee Colville saw ‘shards of glass flying through the air and then flames’.
Jurors heard she could ‘smell herself burning and saw her hair was on fire’.
Hassan is accused of using a toilet at Wimbledon station to set the timer on the device.
‘Some in the carriage were caught by the flames and sustained significant burns,’ said prosecutor Alison Morgan.
‘Many ran in fear and panic. They were fortunate. Had the device fully detonated it is inevitable that serious injury and significant damage would have been caused within the carriage.
‘Those in close proximity to the device may well have been killed.’
Hassan set a crude timing device and got off the train at Putney Bridge station, the stop before Parsons Green.
The bucket was inside a Lidl carrier bag and been packed with assorted objects including sockets, screw drivers and bolts.
‘The bucket containing the device had been loaded with pieces of shrapnel, that is, metal objects designed to be propelled out of the device during the explosion, causing maximum harm and carnage to those in the surrounding area,’ Miss Morgan said.
The court heard that after ‘calmly’ walking away from Putney Bridge station, Hassan boarded a Route 74 bus towards Earl’s Court. He sat on the top deck at the front of the bus.
CCTV footage allegedly shows him glancing out of the window as he passes Parsons Green station.
He is then seen to remove the SD card from his mobile phone, chew on it and then stuff it down the side of the seat.
The destroyed SD card was later discovered by police, jurors were told.
Hassan had searched Amazon to buy a five litre bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide one of the key ingredients of the home made explosive which was sent to a friend’s address in Thornton Heath.
The ingredients to make the bucket bomb were ‘not difficult to acquire’, the court heard.
Without a license it is possible to purchase the hydrogen peroxide substance up to a maximum concentration of 12 per cent, Ms Morgan said.
‘The ingredients necessary to manufacture a device of this type, with such deadly potential, are not difficult to acquire.
‘The explosive triacetone triperoxide, which we will refer to as TATP, during the course of this trial, is made of three ingredients: hydrogen peroxide, acetone, such as you might find in nail polish remover, and sulphuric acid.
‘TATP is an extremely volatile explosive. It is not produced in commercial circumstances in this country, so its manufacture is ‘improvised’ or ‘home-made’.
‘The very process of making TATP in any amount is inherently dangerous. The maker risks causing accidental harm to himself.
‘Once made, it remains volatile, and the process of transferring it from one container to another, or transporting it about, could result in accidental detonation.’
Hassan set up a new gmail account and bought the hydrogen peroxide at 10.51pm on August 26, using the name and address of his friend Ayah Mahmood in Thornton Heath.
Artists impression of Ahmed Hassan, on trial today at the Old Bailey, London, March 7, 2018, after being accused of the Parsons Green terror attack which injured 30 people last year
The device exploded in a ball of fire as the train pulled into Parsons Green station at 8.20am on September 15 last year, leaving passengers badly burned
A forensics officer on the platform at Parsons Green station in west London, examining the scene
It was delivered to him on August 30, and the following day Hassan collected the substance from the Thornton Heath address.
‘CCTV footage shows the defendant travelling back from Thornton Heath with a Lidl plastic bag containing what the prosecution alleges to be the hydrogen peroxide,’ said Ms Morgan.
Hassan used his phone to search for sulphuric acid on 3 September, and that evening he bought the ingredient at 98 per cent from Amazon, which was delivered to his house three days later.
The third ingredient, acetone, can be obtained through nail varnish remover, so is ‘widely available’.
An empty bottle of nail varnish remover was found at Hassan’s home address, the court heard.
CCTV of the explosion played in court a crowded rush hour train suddenly engulfed in flames and panicked passengers fleeing in terror.
Clean-shaven and short-haired Hassan hung his head in the dock as the footage was shown to the jury.
Police remove the ‘ring of steel’ barriers surrounding the house in Sunbury, West London where the Parson’s Green terror suspect was living
Hassan had arrived in the UK in the back of a lorry in October 2015 when he was 16 after he was smuggled through the Channel Tunnel without any identity papers.
His asylum claim was pending and he was living with foster parents Penelope Jones, 71, and her husband Ronald, 88, at the time of the attack.
The couple were awarded MBEs in recognition of their services to children and families in 2009.
A Barnados staff member who spoke Arabic allegedly caught him listening to a call to arms song, with words to the effect: ‘We are coming with you to the slaughter in your home/country.’
CCTV of the explosion played in court a crowded rush hour train suddenly engulfed in flames and panicked passengers fleeing in terror
One of his supervisors also allegedly saw Hassan watching a video of people in a truck wearing balaclavas and holding machine guns and an IS flag.
In April 2016, the teenager was referred by Surrey social services to Brooklands College where he was given a mentor who helped him find a foster home in Cavendish Road, Sunbury, in Surrey.
At college, he completed a media course in photography and film-making.
As part of the course, he made a film of the destruction of a mobile – which the prosecution alleged rehearsed efforts he made to dispose of his phone following the bombing.
Jurors were told there was no record of how Hassan made his device as the Mac laptop social services gave him for his studies had been completely wiped the day before the alleged attack.
Hassan, from Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, denies attempted murder and using the explosive substance TATP (triacetate triperoxide) to endanger life or cause serious injury to property.
The trial continues.
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