London Tube Bomb Suspect Identity Revealed as Iraqi Refugee

London Tube Bomb Suspect Identity Revealed as Iraqi Refugee (Photo)

The London Police has unveiled the face of a terror suspect linked to the London train station attack which injured over 20 people. 

These are the first pictures of a suspect being held by police investigating the Parsons Green Tube bombing.

 

Yahyah Farroukh, 21, is listed as living at an address in Stanwell, Surrey, which was searched by officers on Sunday.

 

He was arrested at a fried chicken shop where he worked in Hounslow, west London, on Saturday night. Another 18-year-old was detained at Dover ferry port on Saturday morning.

 

The younger man is suspected of planting the device, which exploded on a District Line train in London on Friday morning, injuring 30 people. Police said the two men are being questioned on suspicion of offences under the Terrorism Act.

 

Both men are believed to have spent time in the care of Penelope and Ronald Jones, who received MBEs for services to children and families in 2010.

 

Sky News understands that Farroukh has a number of links to the Joneses. He is linked with Penny Jones via Facebook and is also one of the people most recently registered to the address where the couple live.

 

The Joneses have been highly respected foster parents for almost 40 years and looked after up to 300 children, including eight refugees.

 

Farroukh is originally from Damascus, according to his Facebook profile. West Thames College, where he said he studied English, confirmed he was a student between 2013 and 2015.

 

Suleman Sarwar, 43, who owns Aladdin’s Fried Chicken on Kingsley Road, Hounslow, with his brothers, said Farroukh was arrested outside the takeaway after his shift finished at 11.30pm on Saturday.

 

He said: “He was very normal. I don’t know how long he worked here. It was surprising seeing him on the news.”

 

Leader of Spelthorne Borough Council Ian Harvey, whose ward is Sunbury East, said the 18-year-old suspect is understood to be an Iraqi orphan who moved to Britain when he was 15.

 

Mr Harvey said: “One thing I understand is that he (the 18-year-old) was an Iraqi refugee who came here aged 15 – his parents died in Iraq.”

 

Mr and Mrs Jones’ home in Sunbury-on-Thames was searched by armed police on Saturday morning and is still being examined by counter-terrorism investigators.

 

Mrs Jones previously told the website of Elmbridge CAN, a group which works to settle refugees in the Surrey borough of Elmbridge, that the couple had fostered refugees from Iraq, Eritrea, Syria, Albania and Afghanistan.

 

She said: “People think the language will be a huge problem. But it isn’t. Social services provide us with image cards. I make them repeat the words and after six weeks… they have a basic level of English to go to college.

 

“There are different cultural needs. But I always tell them to guide me and I’ll do what I can… we respect each other and our beliefs.

“You have to have time. You need to be able to go to the Home Office with them. You need to get them a solicitor. You have to have patience too and remember they’ve been through a lot.

“But it’s so rewarding. They’re grateful to be safe, to have a bed to sleep in and to have food and (our support)… that’s all they need.”

 

Footage has emerged of a man in Sunbury carrying a Lidl bag, similar to the one the suspected device was hidden in, at 6.50am, reportedly leaving a house which police later searched.

 

On Sunday afternoon, the UK’s terror threat level was lowered from its highest point of ‘critical’ to ‘severe’.

 

Meanwhile, all but one of those injured in the attack have been able to leave hospital. As well as injuries from the fire, many people were hurt in the stampede of passengers trying to escape the bomb.