Exeter bomber was "Muslim convert"

Suspect: Nicky Reilly

The man who attempted to detonate and explosive device in an Exeter restaurant was a Muslin convert, the Daily Mail has reported. The paper named the suspect as Nicky Reilly and said he had a ‘mental disorder’. He is said to have tried to detonate two ‘nail-bombs’ but in attempting to arm the devices an explosion occurred. He is described as having serious facial injuries. Devon and Cornwall police have refused to say what offence he was being held on suspicion of. However they revealed that at least one other device had been found “nearby”. According to the Daily Mail police forensic teams are believed to have recovered one or two canisters of sodium-based home made explosive either from the toilet or outside the restaurant. A 14-strong team from the Metropolitan's Counter Terrorism Command later travelled to Exeter to assist in the investigation. Devon and Cornwall chief constable Stephen Otter said: "There were two devices, one in the cafe and one nearby. We do not know precisely how bad it could have been if they had gone off but it would have been quite serious. That is why we are treating this as a serious incident and investigating it quite thoroughly. I cannot confirm if it was a nail bomb. We are still examining the devices”.

Sky News reported that the man was a recent Muslim convert who had been "preyed upon and radicalised" according to police. The BBC did not initially revealed the identity of the man who targeted the Giraffe restaurant at 12:50 on Thursday afternoon, but later posts on its website did report his name and showed a photograph of the suspect. Last June car bombs were left in London and another was rammed into Glasgow airport. In one of the incidents a car bomb was left outside the TigerTiger club in London but failed to explode [BBC]. Another car bomb had been inadvertently removed by parking enforcement. It too failed to detonate. But a week later a vehicle was rammed into the front of Glasgow Airport’s terminal building before exploding in flames. Only the two attackers were injured, one fatally. The other man, Bilal Abdullah, is currently awaiting trial. While the threat from Islamist inspired terrorism remains, it is clear there is a severe lack of competence displayed.