Rickshaw bombers peddle death

What a charming eastern touch to the whole thing. Had the bombs gone off, they'd have been stuck in traffic about 20 metres away.



Two terrorists caught rickshaws to escape the scene after leaving car bombs parked in London's busy West End, a court heard.

Bilal Abdulla, 29, and Kafeel Ahmed, 28, stationed one of the vehicles outside a packed nightclub and the other in front of a bustling bus stop, Woolwich Crown Court was told.

The cars, packed with gas canisters, petrol and nails, were left in the capital on June 29 last year but failed to explode because the initiation devices did not work properly, the jury heard.

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw QC said the two men were captured on CCTV leaving the area in the early hours of that morning.

Ahmed was seen dumping into a bin an umbrella he had apparently been carrying to shield his face from cameras.

At 1.39am he boarded a rickshaw in Piccadilly Circus and Abdulla also adopted the same mode of transport to get away from the area.

The two men met up in Edgware Road at 2.05am, just 30 minutes after they had left the bomb-rigged cars, the court heard.

Ahmed died in hospital after a second attempted terrorist attack, on Glasgow Airport, the following day.

Abdulla is standing trial with Mohammed Asha, 28, accused of conspiring to murder and to cause explosions likely to endanger life.

Abdulla, of Houston, Glasgow, and Asha, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, are both doctors who have worked in NHS hospitals around the country. They both deny the charges.