British police have linked this morning's bomb at the BBC Television Centre in London to three previous attacks believed to be the work of dissident Republican group, the 'Real IRA'.
A coded warning was received by a London hospital at 11.22 p.m. last night stating a maroon London taxi containing a bomb was parked outside BBC. A second coded warning was issued to an unnamed charity at 11.24 p.m.
Bomb disposal officers from the British Metropolitan Police attended the scene within 20 minutes of the original call. They started to conduct a controlled explosion but while they were carrying out those procedures the bomb exploded.
The taxi, parked near a bus stop outside the main entrance to the Centre was destroyed in the blast and debris scattered over a 150-metre area.
It had been bought by a man who spoke with a Northern Irish accent from a dealer in Edmonton, north London, for £300. He was white, about 30 years old, 6ft, wearing a short jacket and a baseball cap.
A London Underground employee received minor injuries in the blast.
The head of the British Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Mr Alan Fry said: "We have been predicting, since Christmas, that the mainland and London in particular were to be subject to terrorist attacks. This was one of those attacks. I can only fear that we will see more."
On June 1 last year a bomb exploded under Hammersmith Bridge, while on July 19 police performed a controlled explosion on a device found alongside railway lines in Acton, west London.
On September 20 a rocket launcher was fired at the MI6 headquarters in Vauxhall Cross, south east London.
PA