An explosion on a London Underground train this morning has become the fifth terror attack to hit Britain this year.
Some 36 innocent people have been killed in sickening attacks targeting London and Manchester.
Today’s blast saw fire engulf a packed commuter train at Parsons Green in west London, with 22 people being taken to hospital for treatment.
Four attacks – at Westminster, Manchester, London Bridge and Finsbury Park – have hit Britain already this year.
Today’s blast saw fire engulf a packed commuter train at Parsons Green in west London, with 22 people being taken to hospital for treatment
People in the area this morning were crushed by terrified crowds. Pictured, paramedics treating a victim at the scene
Other commuters at Parsons Green said they were ‘thrown around and crushed’ by panicked crowds shouting ‘there’s a man, there’s a man’ before running from the area
Emergency services raced to the scene after a homemade device detonated on a tube at Parsons Green in west London this morning.
Details about the Parsons Green blast are still emerging, but Scotland Yard had declared a ‘terrorist incident’ within two hours of the first emergency calls.
The scenes of panic evoked memories of the July 7 atrocities in 2005, when suicide bombers killed 52 people in a series of co-ordinated attacks across the transport network.
Two weeks later, a group of men attempted to set off rucksack devices but the bombs failed to go off.
The emergency at Parsons Green will spark another huge counter-terrorism probe as security services confront an unprecedented threat.
Authorities have foiled 19 plots since the middle of 2013 – including six since the Westminster atrocity in March.
The incident comes a day after figures revealed terror-related arrests in Great Britain have hit a new record high, with suspects held at a rate of more than one every day.
March 22: Five people were killed in a car and knife attack in Westminster, London
March 22: Five people are killed in a car and knife attack in Westminster.
Khalid Masood drove a hire car over Westminster Bridge, near the Houses of Parliament, mounted the pavement and hit pedestrians before crashing into railings outside the Palace of Westminster.
He stabbed Pc Keith Palmer, 48, to death. Also killed in the atrocity were US tourist Kurt Cochran, Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea, 31, and Britons Aysha Frade, 44, and 75-year-old Leslie Rhodes. Masood was shot dead by police.
May 22: Twenty-two people – including children – are killed in a bombing at a pop concert in Manchester.
Lone suicide attacker Salman Abedi detonated an explosive device as crowds of music fans, many of them youngsters, left Manchester Arena following a performance by US singer Ariana Grande.
May 22: Twenty-two people – including children – are killed in a bombing at a pop concert in Manchester
Lone suicide attacker Salman Abedi detonated an explosive device as crowds of music fans, many of them youngsters, left Manchester Arena
June 3: Eight people are killed in a terror attack around London Bridge.
A van ploughed into people on the bridge before the three attackers carried out a knife rampage in Borough Market.
The perpetrators – Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22 – were shot dead by police.
Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22 – were shot dead by police
June 19: One man dies and several others are injured after a man allegedly rams his van into worshippers in north London.
Darren Osborne, 47, of no fixed address in Cardiff, is charged with murder and attempted murder after being accused of carrying out a premeditated attack on Muslims as they left a mosque on Seven Sisters Road, Finsbury Park.
June 19: One man dies and several others are injured after a man allegedly rams his van into worshippers in north London
Police warned there is no such thing as a ‘typical terrorist’ after official statistics showed rises in numbers detained across ethnicities and age groups.
There were 379 arrests for terrorism-related offences in the year ending June 2017, the highest number in a 12-month period since data collection began in 2001.
Police and MI5 are running 500 investigations involving 3,000 individuals at any one time, while there are also 20,000 former ‘subjects of interest’ whose risk must be kept under review.