Special Report

Charles Gibson reports on London's thwarted bomb plot.

ByABC News
June 29, 2007, 4:19 PM

June 29, 2007 — -- The following is a transcript of ABC News' Special Report Friday afternoon on the thwarted London bomb plot:

Good day, I'm Charles Gibson at ABC News headquarters in New York. It now appears that there has been a terrorist plot uncovered in the city of London. This is a story that has been developing all day, but as you may know, last night, late last night, early this morning in London time, there was a Mercedes car found on a very busy London street laden with gasoline, propane gas and nails, set to explode. It was outside a busy night club in downtown London that was bustling with people. An ambulance driver went by, noticed the car, it was smoking, called the police. They found the gasoline and the propane inside, were able to defuse the bomb.

But now it appears that there may be other vehicles in London that have similar explosive devices and it may be that London has a line on the suspect behind all this. Our chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross is with me. Tell me about this suspect.

Brian Ross: Good afternoon, Charlie. British and U.S. authorities tell us they now have a crystal clear surveillance photo of the man who drove that silver Mercedes outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub early this morning. And that he bears a very close resemblance to a man who was arrested in a similar bomb plot two or three years ago, but then later released for lack of evidence. According to authorities, the man is seen staggering from the car after he parked it -- perhaps drunk, perhaps high on drugs, perhaps just nervous.

We also know the car involved was stolen in early June. It was spotted Wednesday in Scotland according to authorities, and then late last night, Thursday night in Birmingham, England, where apparently it was driven directly into London.

Gibson: Now they have pictures of this fellow and he may be associated with an earlier plot. In 2004, there was a plot where a car, a limousine was parked outside a busy nightclub, similarly packed with explosives.