London Police Foil Major Terror Plot

A British police officer stands at the cordoned off junction of Coventry Street and Haymarket in central London as police officers investigate a "potentially viable explosive device" Friday June 29, 2007. Explosives officers on Friday dealt with a suspected bomb in a vehicle parked near Picadilly Circus in central London, making it "safe," police said. (AP Photo/Clara Molden/PA Wire) (Clara Molden - AP)

"They found a cell phone and it was going to be used to detonate the bomb," said U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.

The bomb in the Mercedes near Piccadilly Circus was powerful enough to have caused "significant injury or loss of life" at a time when hundreds were in the area, Clarke said.

The announcement of the second bomb came about 20 hours later, after police had closed off a nearby major street along Hyde Park for several hours to investigate a suspicious blue Mercedes. That car had been towed across town to an impound lot; the attendants there, on the alert after news of the first foiled car bombing, smelled gasoline and alerted authorities.

The car had been parked on Cockspur Street, which runs between Haymarket and Trafalgar Square. About 2:30 a.m., it was ticketed and then towed an hour later to the impound lot on Park Lane on Hyde Park's eastern edge, Clarke said.

The blue Mercedes "was found to contain very similar materials to those that had been found in the first car," Clarke said. "There was a considerable amount of fuel and gas canisters. As in the first vehicle, there was also a quantity of nails. This like the first device was potentially viable."

The busy Haymarket thoroughfare, linking Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London's theater district and near Trafalgar Square, is packed with restaurants, bars, a cinema complex and West End theaters.

Tiger Tiger is a stylish three-story venue that stays open until 3 a.m. and at full capacity can fit 1,770 people. Thursday was ladies' night.

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Associated Press writers Lindsay Toler, Raphael G. Satter, contributed to this report.