Blazing Car Crashes into Glasgow Airport - Breaking News!

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One of the would-be Glasgow suicide bombers is bravely hosed down with a fire extinguisher by a security guard as the Jeep Cherokee bursts into flames



The Jeep burns fiercely as the Glasgow Airport security staff look on


Police officers hold down one of the badly-burned men outside the Glasgow arrivals hall moments after he had set himself alight

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BBC apologises for staging massive city centre explosion
16:42pm on 2nd July 2007

BBC chiefs have apologised for staging a massive explosion in a crowded city centre - a day after the Glasgow airport terrorist attack. Shoppers in Cardiff feared the blast was the work of terrorists when it rocked streets during filming for Dr Who spin-off series Torchwood. Shoppers thought the explosion was the work of terrorists. Police had issued an alert two hours earlier because of the terrorist attacks in Glasgow and London.

The BBC staged the explosion next to the Millennium Stadium yards from the busy shopping streets, restaurants and bars in the Welsh capital. Passers-by were horrified by the blast in an old courtroom building which sent a huge pall of smoke over the city centre. An actress playing a young mum with a pushchair was blown off her feet in the dramatic scene.

Father-of-three Pete Humphries, 47, said: "The BBC must be mad doing this now. It was loud and frightening. It is incredibly insensitive. My blood ran cold when I heard that bang."

Mum-of-two Amanda Thomas, 34, said: "I jumped out of my skin. It was a huge bang - and I thought of terrorism straight away. You'd think the police might have stopped the BBC doing it after what's happened over the last few days with terrorism. They've targeted London and Glasgow so any major city might be next."

Her mum Brenda Protheroe, 59, said: "It was quite a bang and everyone looked shocked. "It sound like a clap of thunder but deeper. We've had a lot of storms recently but we knew it wasn't thunder. It sounded exactly like a bomb. You could tell people were worried all around us. What an earth were the BBC thinking of doing this now - couldn't it have waited a couple of weeks?"

The BBC issued their own warning on local radio and online just an hour before the blast was due - too late for many of the frightened shoppers. It was due to have two blasts two hours apart but cut it to one after the security alert. Police sent uniformed officers to calm people passing and the BBC has their own private security teams on standby.

Inspector Andy Walbeoff, of South Wales Police, said: "We decided to issue the warning to the public because of the heightened state of alert following the other incidents. It was short notice because of the change of events but we realised some people would be frightened "We didn't want people running away thinking they were real bombs going off. We watched the explosion from our control rooms on our cameras and it seemed to make a mighty bang."

The blasts rocked a former county court building, now empty, in the city's Westgate Street. It was turned into a "Telecommunications and Mobile Switching Centre" for the filming. Huge cannons sent papers into the street, a pall of smoke went out and stunt people were seen rolling around in agony. The filming was for new Torchwood series starring John Barrowman due to be screened later this year.

A BBC production team member said: "The filming was planned many weeks ago before the recent terrorist incidents. We had informed neighbouring businesses but could not tell everyone who might be in the city centre. We apologise if anyone was frightened."

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That would have freaked me out for sure!

[luke]

not the best of timing from the beeb

interesting update

[faceless]

This is quite funny... someone set up a website about the guy who attacked the bomber who was on fire.

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/4pehcikRYLE"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/4pehcikRYLE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

https://johnsmeaton.com/?p=3&cp=all#comments

[luke]

[11antoniacourt]

this is just unreal to me.

[nekokate]

[luke]

[major.tom]

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Hundreds attend anti-terror rally
About 1,500 people have gathered in Glasgow for a rally against terrorism, organised by Mosques and Islamic groups. It comes a week after a car burst into flames after being driven into the terminal building at Glasgow Airport.

Organisers said: "The eyes of the world will be on a Scotland sending out the message that all our communities are united against terrorism." And that the day was doubly significant as it was the second anniversary of the London Tube bombings and one week after the Glasgow attack. Faith leaders, churches and trade unionists were among those at the event, and Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon spoke to the crowd.

Osama Saeed, one of the organisers, said: "We've been staggered by the messages of support we've been getting this week from the four corners of the globe. We thought on a local level we'd get together and do this to allow the grassroots to display their anger at the attacks, little realising nothing like this had ever been done before anywhere else before. The eyes of the world will be on a Scotland sending out the message that all our communities are united against terrorism.

"The Muslim community have called this event, but what's touching is how the rest of the country has responded to us."

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Misplaced revenge
www.osamasaeed.org
This was the aftermath of an attack on an Asian shop in the Riddrie area of Glasgow yesterday. Someone reverse-rammed a car into the premises and set it on fire. It seems like a copycat revenge attack after what happened at Glasgow Airport.

More pictures here. I only got there after they'd removed the car. Disappointingly, there has been hardly any media coverage of this. I heard from the PA that this has happened, but the way that it was being spoken about was that it was a relatively minor incident. When I got there, they were demolishing the building.

There's been some debate about foreign policy this week. It would be worth reflecting that if this is how out of control someone or some people in Glasgow get after the Glasgow Airport incident, then how would some in Iraq react to the destruction there, not to mention the loss of some 650,000 lives?

It should go without saying, but this kind of misplaced vengeance doesn't get us anywhere. I hope arrests take place quickly regarding this. The people of Riddrie though are no more to blame for what's happened here than the Muslim community are for what happened at the airport.

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I'd not heard a thing about this on the news myself - ironically it seems better organised than the incident which pre-empted it...