Detectives searching for the Ealing car bomber yesterday released CCTV footage of a man they believe planted the device and then walked off down a London street.
Video footage of a grey Saab 9000 five-door saloon shows the car being parked close to traffic lights on The Broadway in Ealing at 11 p.m. last Thursday. Inside it, a 40 kilogram bomb, probably made from fertiliser, detonated an hour later, injuring 11 people.
A few moments after the man parked the car, he is seen crossing the road and walking between two men outside a shop where he apparently makes brief physical contact with them. In the video footage, which is fuzzy making it difficult to identify defining features, one man waits outside the Royal Food and Wine Shop on The Broadway. Another man walks out of the shop and the man who drove the car walks between them, keeping his head down. He is wearing dark clothes and a dark baseball cap with a white design on the front. The man then walks towards Ealing Common.
Appealing for witnesses to come forward, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and head of the antiterrorist branch, Mr Alan Fry, admitted the CCTV footage was not the breakthrough that police were looking for.
He added: "There may have been something said between them. It looks as if he almost bumps into someone and someone said `look where you are going'. I would not expect anyone to be able to name the bomber from what we see here. I am hoping that it will trigger people's memories".
The bomb, which is being blamed on the "Real IRA", exploded just after midnight and Mr Fry said people who had passed close to the car before the explosion had been "incredibly lucky".
Police are investigating the type of timer in the device. Although the car was parked an hour before it detonated, police believe it does not necessarily point to the use of a one-hour timer device.