A British al Qaida suspect reportedly the mastermind of the London suicide bombings has been arrested, it was claimed today.
Haroon Rashid Aswat, who grew up in West Yorkshire, was detained last week in Zambia and is being held for his alleged role in setting up a terror camp in Oregon, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The reports have been played down by Scotland Yard and come as Edgware Road station opened today for the first time since the July 7th bomb attacks.
The station - showing no signs of the devastation caused by the blast which killed seven people - opened for business at 5.05am.
A police spokeswoman refused to shed any light on claims that Aswat was the possible mastermind of the London bombings.
He had reportedly been in London for two weeks before the attack and had apparently fled just hours before the explosions.
He is also reportedly wanted by police in Britain after making some 20 calls from his mobile phone to two of the four suicide bombers.
The police spokeswoman said: "It's all speculation and not something that we will discuss at the moment."
Last night, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair criticised West Midlands Police for using a Taser stun gun on a man suspected of the failed London bombings, saying it could have set off explosives.
Shooting Yasin Hassan Omar, who was arrested in a dawn raid on a Birmingham flat on Wednesday, with the Taser was an "incredible risk" because it could have detonated any bomb, he said.
Omar is being questioned over the failed bombing at Warren Street station on July 21st.
Speaking on last night's BBC News special programme, Questions Of Security, Sir Ian said: "It was an incredible risk to use a Taser on a suicide bomber because the Taser itself could set it off and that is not the policy.
"I can't imagine how that was used. We use Tasers in London regularly but a Taser sends electric currents into the body of somebody.
"If there is a bomb on that body, then the bomb can go off.
"It may be that it was clear there wasn't a bomb, I don't know what the situation was."
PA