British Police Arrest Bombing Suspect

The arrest of the suspect came after a series of raids in Leeds, a northern city with a strong Muslim community. At least three of the suspected bombers came from the West Yorkshire region, which includes Leeds, said Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch, at a press conference.

Police had “strong forensic and other evidence” that the man believed to have carried a bomb onto the subway train that exploded between the Aldgate and Liverpool Street stations died in the blast, and they were awaiting confirmation by the coroner, Clarke said, reported the Associated Press.

Police were working to determine if the other three men also died in the explosions that killed at least 52 people and wounded 700 during the morning rush hour.

One of the suspects had been reported missing by his family at 10 a.m. Thursday, and some of his property had been found on the double-decker bus in which 13 people died, according to the AP.

The family said the man had traveled to London with three other men.

Investigators found personal documents with the names of two of the three men near seats on the Aldgate and Edgware lines. Police did not provide names of the suspects.

Acting on six warrants stemming from those developments, British soldiers burst into a modest Leeds row house Tuesday to search for explosives and computers. Streets were blocked off and about 500 people evacuated. Earlier, police searched five other homes.

No one was home at the time of the raid, and there was no immediate word of arrests.

Leeds is located about 185 miles north of London and has a population of about 715,000. About 15 percent of the residents are Muslim, and many come from a tight-knit Pakistani community, mostly from Murpir, south of Islamabad. Other areas of the community are mostly Arab, coming from various countries including Syria and Saudi Arabia, according to the AP.

Authorities have just begun releasing some of the names of the victims. Forensics experts have said it could take days or weeks to identify all of the bodies.

Police have received thousands of tips and were scrutinizing some 2,500 closed-circuit TV videos taken from cameras around the blast sites.