The third terrorist incident in the UK in three days:
A burning car has been rammed into the terminal building of Glasgow Airport in Scotland, heightening terrorism fears with the UK already on alert over the discovery of two cars loaded with explosive materials in London.
Police and witnesses described an SUV-style vehicle in flames being driven at full speed towards the building.
Two people were arrested at the scene, police said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear whether there were any injuries, although unconfirmed witness reports described a man on fire at the scene.
And there have been TWO ARRESTS, the AP’s latest story says:
Two men rammed a flaming Jeep Cherokee into the main terminal of Glasgow airport Saturday, crashing into the glass doors at the entrance in what appeared to be the third attempted terror attack on Britain in two days, witnesses said. Police wrestled the two men to the ground – one of them engulfed in flames – arresting both and taking one to the hospital.
There were no reports of injuries but the airport – Scotland’s largest – was evacuated and all flights suspended, a day after British police thwarted a plot to bomb central London, discovering two cars abandoned with loads of gasoline, gas canisters and nails. Hundreds fled screaming from the terminal as one of the men poured gasoline over the Jeep and tried to force it further inside the terminal, one witness said.
“One has to conclude … these are linked,” Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, former head of Britain’s joint intelligence committee, told Sky News. “This is a very young government, and we may yet see further attacks.”
Britain’s prime minister, Gordon Brown, a Scot who took office only Wednesday, was holding a meeting of the government crisis committee later Saturday and was being kept updated by officials, Downing Street said.
A British government security official said the incident was being treated as “possibly terrorist related at this stage.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Security officials had no direct intelligence linking the incident to the thwarted plot to bomb London but “are keeping an open mind,” the official said.
It’s a bit to early lin this story to know all the details — but it means the new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown gets no honeymoon as his government has to move swiftly to see if there are any links between these incidents — and to find out whether more attacks are in the offing.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.