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Probe into bomb suspect's escape

Hasan Suroor

U.K. remains on high alert amid warnings of more attacks

LONDON: British Government is to investigate how one of the suspects behind the July 21 failed bomb attacks in London was able to leave the country without being detected despite a nationwide security alert.

Osman Hussain, also known as Hamdi Isaac, managed to flee Britain five days after he allegedly tried to cause an explosion at the Shepherd's Bush tube station in west London.

He was arrested in Rome last Friday. Italian police on Monday said he had no links with large terrorist organisations.

That he was able to beat border controls even as his photograph was staring out of every newspaper and TV channel has embarrassed the Government with critics calling it a serious security lapse.

Concern

Geoff Hoon, the Leader of the Commons, admitted that there was "concern'' over the issue and said that the Government would order an investigation. He also indicated that extra passport checks were likely to be introduced for those leaving and entering the country at the Eurostar terminus at the London Waterloo station.

Hussain is believed to have boarded a Eurostar train at Waterloo station on July 26 and remained undetected even though the CCTV images of the suspects were displayed at the station. Police believe he travelled to Paris and Milan before reaching Rome.

British passport checks for outgoing Eurostar passengers were reported to have been stopped last year but reintroduced after the July 7 attacks which killed 56 persons — and were in force when Hussain left the country.

In a BBC interview on Sunday, Mr. Hoon said he understood the "concern'' and the Home Office would be looking at how Hussain's passport was not checked.

Identity cards

"It is important that we are able to identify those coming into the country as well as those leaving.

It is one of the arguments obviously that we have used to support the idea of identity cards because it is vitally important that we are able to say who is in the U.K. at any given time,'' he said.

Hussain, who was arrested in Rome on Friday, is fighting extradition to Britain. Italian authorities were reported as saying that Hussain, who is of Ethiopian origin, entered Britain five years ago as an asylum-seeker on a "false'' passport. His extradition could take weeks, they said.Britain remained on high alert amid police warnings that more attacks were not ruled out.

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