(JTA) — Police in London carried out a controlled explosion across the street from Israel’s embassy in the city after a suspicious vehicle was spotted there.
Hundreds of commuters were evacuated from the surrounding area, and police temporarily shut down a nearby section of Kensington High Street, according to the Daily Star.
Police determined that the car, a Volkswagen Passat, contained no explosives. London’s Jewish Chronicle reported that embassy staff “looked shaken upon leaving the building.”
In 1994, a car bombing on the western London embassy injured 20 and was followed several hours later by another one outside the London office of the United Jewish Israel Appeal. Two Palestinians, Jawad Botmeh and Samar Alami, were convicted in 1996 of “conspiracy to cause explosions” and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Botmeh was released in 2008 and Alami in 2009. Both insisted they were innocent and, according to the Jewish Chronicle, the current Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, advocated for their release.
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