Bombing at Gay Pub in London Kills 2

LONDON â€”  Two people were killed and more than 60 wounded when a bomb exploded inside a crowded central London gay pub Friday evening, the third such attack to rock the city in two weeks.

Scotland Yard said the deadly explosion in Soho--the heart of London’s gay community and a popular tourist area--was linked to two previous nail bombs detonated in black and Asian neighborhoods April 17 and April 24.

“These are hate attacks . . . despicable, cowardly attacks, and we will defeat the people responsible for these attacks,� said Paul Condon, Metropolitan Police commissioner.

“We will catch them, but we will need help,� he said.

Condon said the bombers were most likely far-right extremists targeting minorities. A telephone caller claiming to represent the “White Wolves,� a small extremist group, took responsibility for the Soho bombing, he said.

Several extremist groups, including the White Wolves, claimed responsibility for the previous bombings in south London’s Brixton neighborhood and in Brick Lane, a predominantly Bangladeshi area of east London.

Police and leaders of the gay and Jewish communities had been warning that another attack might follow in London or elsewhere in the country. Jewish leaders said that synagogues will have extra security for the Sabbath today and that police and volunteer patrols will be guarding their communities.

Like the previous explosions, which were in street markets crowded with Saturday afternoon shoppers, the Soho blast was timed to cause a maximum number of casualties--this time to gays. It went off about 6:30 on a warm spring evening that had brought thousands of people to Soho’s bars, restaurants and theaters to kick off a three-day holiday weekend.

The explosion shattered the front of the Admiral Duncan pub, sending glass, smoke and burned and bloodied victims out into the street.

“The injuries were horrific,� said Tony Howard, 35, a witness who entered the bar just after the blast to help the wounded. “It was just a mess. You couldn’t breathe inside the pub. There were some people really badly injured, and I just tried to keep them talking until the police arrived.�

Ambulances had difficulty making their way to the scene through narrow, traffic-choked streets. Two people died, and two others lost limbs in the blast; 22 people were taken to four London hospitals, and more than 40 others were treated at the scene.

A paramedic told Sky News television that the carnage was “something I would expect in a war zone, not in central London.�

Police said some of the injuries were similar to those caused by the bombs at Brixton and Brick Lane.

“Clearly, they are linked,� Condon said. But while they target minorities, he added, “they are an attack on us all.�

Police say that the White Wolves might have broken away from another racist group called Combat 18, which also claimed responsibility for the previous bombings. The groups apparently are small cells of extremists who follow a doctrine calling for individual acts of violence.

They are difficult to infiltrate because they are so small, possibly no more than half a dozen people, police and security experts say.

On Thursday, police released a video of their main suspect in the Brixton bombing, a young white male wearing a white baseball cap and apparently casing the neighborhood in advance of the explosion. The footage was taken with a security camera, a common feature on London streets since the days of the Irish Republican Army bombing campaigns.

Condon said police still were trying to determine the identity of the man in the video.

On Friday, police said they had arrested two men in connection with the Brixton bombing, in which 39 people were wounded. At least one suspect was released on bail, but police refused to say what charges had been filed against him.

Condon said gay establishments in Soho had been warned to remain vigilant even before Friday’s attack. The warning also was published in the local gay newspaper.