London Car Bomb

[Fenella]

Does anyone think it's a bit worrying that they only found that car bomb by chance because there was some smoke in it and some ambulance people happened to spot it?

Thank goodness they took it seriously. I think a lot of people would have just passed by.

I thought the intelligence service had most of these people covered but this one seemed to catch them off guard.

[Ck]

I'd heard that it was brought to the attention of the cops by some nightclub owners who saw the car being driven erratically then dumped near a pile of bins where the driver then run off.

I wish the news people would get their facts straight.

[Fenella]

I'd heard that it was brought to the attention of the cops by some nightclub owners who saw the car being driven erratically then dumped near a pile of bins where the driver then run off.

I wish the news people would get their facts straight.

Yes, I'm not sure who saw what, but the official police statement was that it was an ambulance crew who reported it. They just happened to be there because someone was taken ill in the nighclub.

I heard about the car being driven erratically and the driver running off too. Maybe that was also true but was not what brought it to the attention of the police.

[Ck]

I think the police rely very heaviy on the keen eye of the general public.

I do think they do a good job though, I mean, imagine really just how many calls they get saying that someones spotted something suspicious, they must get 100's of false alarms but we never hear of any bombs going off because they disregarded any information without checking it out.

Baddies are notorious for being one step ahead at times, at others one step behind, it's the nature of the game and the rules keep changing but more and more they're going to count on members of the public bringing to their attention something that is out of the ordinary. I don't think that's such a bad thing.

[Fenella]

I think the police rely very heaviy on the keen eye of the general public.

I do think they do a good job though, I mean, imagine really just how many calls they get saying that someones spotted something suspicious, they must get 100's of false alarms but we never hear of any bombs going off because they disregarded any information without checking it out.

Baddies are notorious for being one step ahead at times, at others one step behind, it's the nature of the game and the rules keep changing but more and more they're going to count on members of the public bringing to their attention something that is out of the ordinary. I don't think that's such a bad thing.

The police were fantastic and so were the bomb disposal people. I just wondered why intelligence had not picked anything up.

I think it's great if the general public are looking out for suspicious things but I reckon most people don't bother. If you go on the underground most people just sit there reading the paper or a book. I suppose they just get complacent if nothing has happened for a while.

[Zombie Mastermind]

I can't stand news stories like this.

Why does the media spend hours speculating? I want FACTS not 24 hour blanket coverage of a non-event where reporters interview each other.

Bet the terrierists have a right laugh watching the coverage.

[Fenella]

I can't stand news stories like this.

Why does the media spend hours speculating? I want FACTS not 24 hour blanket coverage of a non-event where reporters interview each other.

Bet the terrierists have a right laugh watching the coverage.

I know what you mean. They have all sorts of experts being interviewed as well but how can they say much when they don't know anything about what's happened?

There was one bloke this morning saying a car bomb wasn't typical of Islamic terrorists just because they hadn't done one in Britain before, but they have car bombs all the time in Iraq, so I thought that was a stupid thing to say.

[FreeBBC]

i remember the ira one

[Ck]

I've thought that about the terrorist laughing at the coverage too, thing is, the public love a good drama so what should they do? Please the public by feeding them the news sensation style at the expense of being laughed at or just report the bare bones as though it's nothing and risk the public accusing them of playing down something major. ?

[Fenella]

i remember the ira one

Which one?