Student who left bomb on Jubilee line train passing Canary Wharf is jailed

Smith being quizzed by Scotland Yard's Counter-Terrorism Command. Picture: MPS (Image: MPS)

Damon Smith was tracked down by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command after leaving his rucksack with the device in the front carriage which was spotted after the train left the station heading to Stratford.

The device contained 153 grams of low-explosive material and shrapnel including ball bearings.

The 20-year-old was identified from CCTV footage with a rucksack on the East London Overground line on October 20 switching to the Jubilee at Canada Water, one stop from Canary Wharf. He left the rucksack on an eastbound train, then got off and travelled in the other direction.

But a passenger spotted the rucksack and reported it to the driver, who noticed wires and a clock and radioed ahead. The train was evacuated at the next stop and the device made safe.

Officers searching Smith’s home in Rotherhithe found a blank firing pistol, a BB gun, a knife and knuckleduster. Shredded documents were reconstructed which were found to give bomb-making instructions. A shopping list of bomb materials was recovered from his iPad.

“We have seen this week the horrifying impact a bomb can have,” Cmdr Dean Haydon of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command said.

“There’s no connection with Manchester, but it brings into stark reality just how devastating it could have been. The bomb was a viable device, but thankfully failed to go off.”

Smith was found guilty under the 1883 Explosive Substances Act on May 3 of unlawfully and maliciously making or possessing an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury.

Police are urging anyone seeing anything suspicious to call the anti-Terrorist Hotline on 0800 789 321—or if it’s an emergency to dial 999.