Iraqi teenager charged with attempted murder over Parsons Green attack
Ahmed Hassan, of Sunbury, is accused of attempting to kill Londoners on a packed District Line Tube train.
An Iraqi asylum seeker has appeared in court charged with attempted murder over the Parsons Green Tube terror attack.
Ahmed Hassan, 18, is accused of attempting to kill Londoners on a packed District Line Tube train with a home-made bomb contained in a bucket hidden inside a Lidl carrier bag.
Hassan allegedly bought parts to make the improvised explosive device online and left the carriage of the District Line train at Putney Bridge before the device partially detonated at the next station last Friday morning.
Witnesses told how a fireball erupted inside the carriage, leaving 30 people injured, including one woman with serious burns.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said told LBC on Friday it was a “very, very dangerous bomb. It partially detonated. It had a large quantity of explosive and it was packed with shrapnel.
“It could have been so much worse.”
Hassan, of Cavendish Road, Sunbury, in Surrey, was arrested at the port of Dover at 7.50am on Saturday by counter-terrorism officers.
The teenager, whose parents are understood to have been killed in Iraq, was in the foster care of Penelope and Ronald Jones, aged 71 and 88 respectively, who previously received MBEs for services to children and families.
He appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday wearing a grey jumper and with long dark, unruly hair, to face charges of attempted murder and using the chemical compound TATP to cause an explosion that was likely to endanger life.
He spoke only to give his name, date of birth and address, and was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on October 13.
