All 56 London victims identified
LONDON – The British government said Wednesday all 56 people known to have died in the bombings of three subway trains and a bus have now been identified, but Home Secretary Charles Clarke warned the number could rise.
Twenty-seven people remained hospitalized, several in critical condition. Police also have not ruled out the possibility of finding more bodies in the mangled wreckage of a train that is still in a deep tunnel near King’s Cross station.
Also, Britain’s Muslim leaders demanded a judicial inquiry into what motivated the four “homegrown” suicide bombers who targeted London, as Prime Minister Tony Blair proposed an international conference on rooting out Islamic extremism.
In Pakistan, an intelligence official said investigators there arrested a man who had direct links to the July 7 bombings, and investigators used telephone numbers provided by Britain to determine who may have had contact with the bombers.
Three of the bombers, all Britons of Pakistani descent, traveled last year to Karachi in southern Pakistan, where officials are trying to determine whether they received training from extremists.
Blair has also sought the help of Britain’s Muslim community. He met Tuesday with 25 community leaders, who have agreed to form a task force to take on the radical voice of Islam.