Luton man connected to bomb probe

It has emerged that the Luton man being investigated over the terrorist bombing in Sweden was asked to leave his local mosque over extremist views.

Peter Adams represents Churches Together - a body of Luton's churches - he said that Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly was on the radar there for his opinions.

"The mosque where he worshipped for a period of time asked him to leave in 2007 I believe, and that mosque has been consistently working to fight extremism," he said.

A property in Luton has been searched as part of the investigation into a suspected suicide car bombing in Stockholm on Saturday.

Metropolitan Police started examining the house on Sunday night, after a warrant was issued under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Al-Abdaly is thought to have been killed in the explosion, he studied at the University of Bedfordshire and lived in Luton.

He apparently blew himself up as he tried to set off a car bomb in the Swedish capital, wounding two other people.

Tahir Hussain, 33, a taxi driver who lives nearby, told the Telegraph newspaper: "I used to see him around often. He didn't say much but seemed nice. I used to see him walking with his kids.

"I was shocked when I heard what happened because I never thought he could do such a thing."

More than 250 people have joined a group set up on Facebook titled "RIP Taimour Abdulwahab our brother and friend".

Bedfordshire University was not available to comment at the weekend.

Experts said the bomber probably did not succeed in detonating all the explosives and could have caused much greater damage.

An audio file sent to Swedish news agency TT shortly before the blast referred to jihad, saying: "Now the Islamic state has been created. We now exist here in Europe and in Sweden. We are a reality. I don't want to say more about this. Our actions will speak for themselves."

Sweden has a military presence in Afghanistan and a Swedish cartoon that depicted the Prophet Mohammed as a dog enraged the Muslim world.

The country had never experienced a suicide bombing and has not had a terrorist attack since the 1970s.

Prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said the attack was "unacceptable".

He said: "Sweden is an open society... which has stated a wish that people should be able to have different backgrounds, believe in different gods... and live side by side in our open society."